Tom O’Neil to Melisssa Rivers: Where’s the Love,Luv?

Tom O’Neil clues us in on the backstory to Melissa Rivers’ comment on his LAT blog:

What Melissa’s referring to in her gruff blog comment about “going to the mat” for me has to do with the battle among producers whether “that expert sh*t” belonged on Joan and Melissa’s Oscar show. Some producers just wanted the show to be about fashion and celeb fawning, but Joan and Melissa — much to their credit — wanted to have real awards dishing, too. When the gals moved to TVG from E! they asked me to go with them to keep that balance going. It was a tough choice to make for me. It meant I had to give up being the resident awards expert at a large cable channel for a smaller one (I couldn’t do both), but I did it because I loved working with them and the team of ace producers that went with them. Yeah, there were those Rivers’ diva antics behind the scenes, but, come on, that’s to be expected. They’re celebrated for being divas and they’re entitled. The main problem at TVG was Melissa’s manager, who she eventually ditched.

Jeeeeez, Melissa–I didn’t mean to ruffle your Vera Wang. I thought my report was fairly straightforward!

Earlier:
Melissa Rivers and Her Diva Antics Kept Tom O’Neil on Red Carpet

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