Tuesday, March 01, 2011

Lovely tributes

On separate websites today, I came upon a pair of eloquent testimonials presented Monday by famous people about famous people. Together, they articulately inform the human condition and qualify as a legitimate blog entry.

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The first is Arianna Huffington talking about her long-time friend, Bill Maher. While the rest of us were not laughing at James Franco and Anne Hathaway hosting the Oscars Sunday night, Arianna was snickering herself silly watching the telecast at the Sunset Tower Hotel in Los Angeles with Maher seated next to her providing an overlapping commentary. Her article is largely an advertisement for the Huffington Post's Comedy page, but her feelings for Maher seem entirely genuine:

"Just after I moved to Washington, almost 20 years ago, I made my first appearance on Politically Incorrect. After I got divorced, his was the first show I did -- actually on the day my divorce was final. And I once even let him talk me into getting into bed with Al Franken. In a theater. On national television. During both parties' 1996 conventions. For eight nights in a row! Basically, to move forward after every big event in my life, I have to check in with Bill. Some people have therapy, I have Bill. He's much funnier and there's no co-pay."

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The second carries a warmer vibe still-- Tina Fey honoring her "30 Rock" co-star, Alec Baldwin, at the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens, New York. Fey and Baldwin are the lead players in the finest screwball romantic comedy that television (or film) has seen since the debut of "Moonlighting" 26 years ago. The show's approach to comedy and relationships is so fresh I wonder how many viewers never even realize that they're watching the ontogenesis of a Liz Lemon/Jack Donaghy love affair. New York Magazine saw fit to publish Fey's entire speech from last night, including this morsel:

"Alec is a writer’s dream in that he speaks quickly and memorizes well, and other stuff I don’t really understand. But I know that over the last five years, our writers have asked Jack Donaghy to do everything from imitate every member of Tracy Jordan’s family, to play his own Mexican doppelgänger, to, you know, act out a heartfelt good-bye scene with a live peacock trying to sodomize a Dick Cheney look-alike. And he has done each of those things with a grace and precision that is prophetic."

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More laughs from the Moeller Post's Comedy page: Jimmy Kimmel, last night, combining Charlie Sheen audio with Charlie Brown video.

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