Television

The finale for the first season of what may be ABC’s most thrilling Washington-based political drama “Scandal” ended last night. In honor of the occasion, today we pair up Politico‘s John Harris and actor Jeff Perry, who plays White House Chief of Staff Cyrus Beene, who likes to prune flowers on the weekends.

Here in the Fishbowl we followed Scandal’s first season closely. There were ups. Downs. Maybe even a few tears. For those who missed it, here’s a recap:

Olivia Pope, played by Kerry Washington who attended the recent White House Correspondents’ Dinner, is a professional crisis fixer. She and he close-knit team of quirky characters, take the worst situations that Washington’s elite find themselves in and make them vanish. But Pope has her own problem: She’s in love with the adulterous Fitzgerland Grant who happens to be President of the United States. Among the many scandals of season one is when a woman with whom the President has an affair ends up pregnant… and then dead. Everyone from the Veep to the first lady to an ambitious journalist end up implicated. The journalist — gasp! — ends up dead with a pair of scissors in his neck. Pope, decked in a crisp white jacket, and her team clean up the crime scene flawlessly. She shares a steamy kiss with President before turning him back over to his Type A wife.

And that brings us to season two, which the series has been renewed for, thank God.

 

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New Rule for HBO’s Bill Maher: Make your “New Rules” biting and trashy enough to elicit more than a single hiccup in Washington. Last week Maher issued a new rule for TWT columnist and Drudge’s Joe Curl.

Few talked about it. Curl hadn’t heard of it and had no comment. He earned the rule for denouncing President Obama in a recent TWT column for not acknowledging the death of one of the Beastie Boys.

Maher flashed a picture of Curl and read the new rule: “A columnist for the right wing Washington Times suggested Obama is racist for not noticing the death of one of the Beastie Boys because he was white must be promoted to Fox News.” He added, “That is such a spectacular piece of hackery, I can’t believe Sean Hannity didn’t think of it first. It should be a reverse Pulitzer.”

Monday night was the premier of Jeopardy’s “Power Players” Edition. Former White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs won the opening round, beating CNN’s Lizzie O’Leary and MSNBC’s Chris Matthews. Matthews put up a pathetic performance and didn’t exactly convince anyone of his brain power. O’Leary took the opportunity to live-tweet her own appearance on the show and let us know just what was going on behind the scenes. She tweeted, “It’s all about the buzzer, people.” Later, as the show was going to a break, O’Leary tweeted, “You guys: in the commercial breaks I totally trash-talked Gibbs.” We’re not sure if we believe that. Crazy Lizzie tweeted 24 times last night referencing her appearance. She jabbed at herself online when she gave an incorrect answer about New York Yankee baseball player, Derek Jeter, saying, “Look, New York, it’s Jeter. I KNOW. #pressure.” When Matthews bombed a question about Francis Gary Powers and just called him “Gary Powers”, O’Leary shit-talked him by tweeting, “Francis. Gary. Powers. #seventhgrade”

O’Leary came in second place and raised $10,000 for her charity, 826DC, a non-profit that tutors children in creative writing.

“The @bpshow Restroom For Narcissists. Perfect for me.” — Mediaite‘s White House Correspondent Tommy Christopher snaps a picture and jokes about the bathroom he encountered during an early morning appearance on Current TV Bill Press‘s radio/TV program.

This is the bathroom for the entire third floor. A little birdy whose name starts with p and ends with r tells us he stole the “n” from the door. Clearly an act of juvenile delinquency.

Special memo to Tim Graham from NewsBusters: In case you are confused, Peter Ogburn, an FBDC writer, is also the producer for The Bill Press Show. Graham was recently riled when we pointed out his confusion between the words “flatulent” and “highfalutin.” Despite me being the writer, his only point of contention was why didn’t we “disclose” that Ogburn works for Bill Press, a fact we have stated repeatedly on the site. Graham wrote that Press had called Ann Romney‘s  ugly, pricey fish shirt “flatulent” as opposed to what Press really said, which was “highfalutin.” No, Graham, Romney’s shirt did not pass gas.

In the final installment of this week’s Media Beat interview, Frank Rich, New York magazine columnist and executive producer of HBO’s Veep, discusses the meshing of politics and pop culture. Having covered Broadway for years, he says the nonstop spectacles, gaffes and minutiae that become “news” just make his job more fun.

“To watch [President Obama and Mitt Romney] grapple on the one hand with the changes in the news media [and] on one hand with the world of The Voice and American Idol, The Daily Show, and SNL, it’s fascinating,” Rich explained. “But people forget this didn’t used to be the case. It was considered a huge deal when Bill Clinton played the saxophone on The Arsenio Hall Show 20 years ago. It’s a development that’s spiraling; it’s developing. It’s interesting to watch. It’s great theater.”

Watch the full video for Rich’s take on that supposed liberal media bias and to find out what he thinks the “real danger” in today’s news reporting is.

For more videos, check out our YouTube channel and follow us on Twitter: @mediabistroTV

Part 1: Veep Executive Producer on DC: ‘Young People Jockeying for Power in Offices that Look Crummy’
Part 2: Frank Rich Compares New York Times and New York Magazine

Praise the lord, Paul Wharton is back in Washington, D.C. The last two episodes of “Paul Wharton Style”, airing Sundays at noon on WB 50, have been based in Manhattan and we are ready to have Paul back on familiar territory. He begins the show by telling us that after being on the road and gobbling mac and cheese, his clothes are feeling a little tight. So, he bounces into a training session with his trainer, Laurent. We have to say that we have NEVER seen Paul like this. His hair is pulled back into a ponytail and he’s sporting a white, deep-V-neck T-shirt. He floats around the gym and gets awfully handsy with Laurent as he gets put through his paces. Paul makes a boatload of excuses as to why he’s struggling so much to get through the workout. He tells Laurent, ”I’ve been busy. My schedule. My dog. I had to go over there and volunteer at the place.” That seems legit. He “volunteers” at “the place.”

After getting his workout in, Paul heads to the wilds of Virginia for a wine tasting. If there is a common thread that ties together each episode, it’s Paul’s love of booze. Hardly a move gets made without him looking for an excuse to crack open a bottle. The owner of Paradise Springs Winery barely gets the phrase “wine tastings” out of his mouth before Paul perks up and demands a tasting for himself. The nice man tries to educate Paul on the complexities of their wine and Wharton LITERALLY points the bottom of the glass at the ceiling and drains the glass of wine. And he doesn’t stop. There are several scenes of Paul draining glass after glass after glass. As he drinks, his catchphrase is “Down the hatchie.” After about five or six glasses of wine, Paul is clearly drunk. He’s snapping his fingers and dancing and telling people he loves them. While we like Paul, he is a cheap date.

Now that he’s all liquored up, it’s time for food. Paul takes the party to Rogue 24, the restaurant from Chef R.J. Cooper. Paul is sitting in the bar area sucking down even more booze when Cooper meets him and tries to teach him about some of his molecular gastronomy creations in his specially designed kitchen. They spend some time assembling a dish featuring a foam of champagne, squid ink crackers and sea urchins. Shockingly, the name of the dish isn’t sea urchins with squid ink and champagne foam. It’s called “The Ocean Floor Looking Out from the Beach in Santa Barbara.” (There is no way that I could make up some bullshit like that and expect you to believe it.) Noteworthy: Paul is sipping a cocktail this whole time. We are drunk just watching him.

Luckily, the next stop is to get some help at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting a bar! He drops into The Passenger to enjoy a “drink or three.” Paul says he loves to get his “cocktail on.” He gets a drink with lime juice, whiskey and soda called “The Rickey.” It sounds delicious. Paul inhales and immediately moves on to another drink called “The Love Letters” made with rum and ginger beer. Paul declares this to be “his drink.” And then it’s on to ANOTHER drink. It’s a lavender punch made with gin. We are almost certain that we can SEE Paul’s breath on the TV screen.

Of all the “Paul Wharton Style” episodes… Read more

There are several reasons why The Avengers shattered box office records this weekend. We’d like to think that MSNBC’s Thomas Roberts is one of them. As TVNewser’s Alex Weprin mentioned last week, there is a cameo from Roberts near the end playing a TV anchor reporting that a group of heroes saved the planet from an attacking army of alien soldiers. Honestly, that doesn’t sound too far off from an actual newscast these days.

Roberts tells FishbowlDC that the shot was filmed at 30 Rock in February of this year. We just assumed Roberts was a comic book fan, but he tells us that he was always more of a “Super-Friends kind of kid.” Roberts saw the movie this weekend and says that he thinks that “the Hulk stole the show.”

In the same scene that we see Roberts, we see recycled footage of a Jay Carney press conference.

Tom Brokaw is on fire. In the hot seat today for trashing the White House Correspondents’ Dinner over the weekend for its infestation of Hollywood stars, Brokaw also managed responses to two long-winded, hothead listeners on C-SPAN’s BookTV Sunday. They demanded his thoughts on the lack of diversity in hosts of NBC’s “Meet the Press.” Brokaw was on BookTV’s three-hour “In Depth” program, which must have felt a hell of a lot longer.

Q: Why does [host of MTP] always have to be a white male?

“That’s not a condition of the job,” Brokaw said. “It’s just htat we try to pick the best journalist that is available to us. … In this case, David Gregory turned up on top. It was not a decision I made. … We do have more female participation going on.” Brokaw mentioned ABC’s Diane Sawyer and former CBS News’ Katie Couric in top news spots.

Q: Why aren’t there any black journalists in any permanent Meet the Press seat?

Brokaw replied, “Yes, in fact, that has been the case and it probably won’t be that forever. He said he had Mary Mitchell on when he took over after Tim Russert died. “Look this is a slow rising tide. David Gregory did not get the job just because he was a white male … he had the skills necessary to be a good broadcaster.” Brokaw said he believed a day could come when the host could be Black, Asian or Hispanic.

Watch here and here.

 

On Sunday’s “Meet the Press”, Tom Brokaw was analyzing the Presidential race of 2012 when he took a sharp turn into Curmudgeon-ville to take major swipes at Nerd Prom. He is not pleased about the glittering of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner with stars like George Clooney and Charlize Theron. Some people may argue that at last those stars are politically active and aware of what’s going on the world. The same can’t be said for the likes of Kim Kardashian and Lindsay Lohan.

In any event, reaction started pouring in over Twitter as Brokaw’s comments went viral. WSJ’s Neil King welcomed Brokaw’s comments by saying, “Here’s seconding Brokaw’s takedown of the WH Correspondents Dinner. And here’s predicting the day when POTUS says thanks but no thanks.” Longtime Washington political journo and columnist for the Dallas Morning News Carl Leubsdorf told FBDC, “I think he spoke for many of us.” He went on to say, “Tom is spot on. And as the dinner has become glitzier, fewer seats have gone to actual correspondents and more to corporate executives, advertisers and celebrities. The upcoming 100th WHCA anniversary in 2014 might be a perfect time to consider this, though I’m not too hopeful that will happen.” Something that got the attention of HuffPost’s Michael Calderone was Brokaw’s mention of “taking over the Italian embassy.” It just so happens that was the location of the blowout MSNBC after-party. National Correspondent for The Atlantic, James Fallows also agreed with Brokaw, saying, “Good for Tom B!”

Brokaw is one in a procession of Washington journalists who are trashing what the dinner has become. Late last week we reported on U.S. News & World Report’s Susan Milligan,
who also believes celebs ruin the image of the event. Some may also recall WaPo Dana Milbank‘s take on Nerd Prom last April, in which he says journalists have turned themselves into pimps for the politicians and the stars. He intimated that he grew sickened as he started to RSVP for parties and “made other plans for the weekend.” But Brokaw’s blast is a little bit different. First, he has the highest profile of anyone who has criticized the dinner. Second, he doesn’t seem to differentiate between George Clooney and Lindsay Lohan. He wants Hollywood out of the dinner.

It’s interesting to note that while Twitter was having a field day with Brokaw’s comments, neither Betsy Fischer, Exec. Producer for “Meet the Press”, nor host David Gregory made any comments. Watch Brokaw’s comments in the video below.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

 

When we last left Paul Wharton, he was in NYC chowing down on mac and cheese. And this week, he picks right back up in the Big Apple by getting his “look right.” He has a busy day of interviews and parties. We find him sitting down to get his brows done at a place that was recently featured in Vogue. We know this because Paul, star of Paul Wharton Style on Channel 50 on Sunday’s at noon,  lets us know this at several junctures during the brow treatment. He also gets a hot oil treatment on his hair. While we aren’t as familiar with the procedure as Wharton is, we became slightly concerned at the amount of smoke and/or steam rising from Paul’s dome during the procedure. He seemed to be enjoying it, though.

After Paul gets his look right, he ventures off to sit down with another one of the ladies from “The Real Housewives of Bullshit County” or whatever the show is called. This time, it was Alex McCord, who was recently booted off the show.

Out of the blue, Wharton asks McCord to cook for him. The two of them then float into the kitchen to make a shrimp and veggie stir fry. The highlight of the show, HANDS DOWN, was the moment when McCord tosses some veggies into the hot oil. Some oils splashes and Wharton shrieked and covered his beautiful hair the way a soldier in the trenches of WWII cover their heads. We’ve seen Olympic sprinters who move slower than Paul trying to protect those locks.

Wharton then moves on to Ryan Serhant, who is the host of Million Dollar Listing. (I don’t know who he is, either.) They are viewing a penthouse apartment in NYC that is going on the market for $8 million. Paul recoils and says he can’t afford it. “Do you know how many makeovers I would have to do for 8 million dollars?! A LOTTA ugly women.” Read more