GOING
She was going to perform for recovering soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, but instead singer and anti-war activist Joan Baez says she was told to take a hike.
The 66-year-old folk singer revealed her feelings about the incident in a recent letter to the Washington Post. In it she wrote that she doesn’t know why she was not allowed to perform for the injured soldiers.
“I have always been an advocate for nonviolence and I have stood as firmly against the Iraq war as I did the Vietnam War 40 years ago,” she wrote. “I realize now that I might have contributed to a better welcome home for those soldiers fresh from Vietnam. Maybe that’s why I didn’t hesitate to accept the invitation to sing for those returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. In the end, four days before the concert, I was not ‘approved’ by the Army to take part. Strange irony.”
Walter Reed officials wouldn’t respond to Baez’s remarks other than to say that the medical center received the request for the singer to join John Mellencamp on stage just two days before the concert and they didn’t have time to modify the contract.
However, prior to that statement Mellencamp told RollingStone.com: “They didn’t give me a reason why she couldn’t come. We asked why and they said, ‘She can’t fit here, period.'”
GOING
I’m sure you know by now that Rosie O’Donnell is going to leave ABC’s “The View” in June.
Now rumors are flying as to who will take her seat alongside the remaining co-hosts. The name that has come up frequently among media types is Roseanne Barr.
While the former sitcom star hasn’t been asked to do it, Barr says she’d jump at the opportunity.
“I would love the chance to do that,” Barr a Las Vegas television news reporter. “I’d love it. Yeah, definitely. I think I would stir up some real good controversy.” I suppose she could pick up where O’Donnell leaves off.
Frankly, I doubt she will be extended an invitation. As for the other names reportedly being talked about to replace Rosie such as Joan Rivers, Whoopi Goldberg, Ricki Lake, Connie Chung, Bette Midler, Kathy Griffin, Mo’Nique, Wanda Sykes, Soledad O’Brien, Sherri Shepherd, and Carrie Ann Inaba… my money’s on Shepard to take over for O’Donnell and O’Brien (if she can get out of her current contract with CNN) to replace Meredith Vieira.
GONE!
It was bye, bye, bye for nice guy John Ratzenberger last night. The 60-year-old actor got the boot from “Dancing With the Stars” and exited like a gentleman—smiling, nodding, and thanking his professional dance partner Edyta Sliwinska as he exited the ABC dance competition.
Even though he scored seven points more than fellow contestant Billy Ray Cyrus (who finished dead last on Monday’s show) Ratzenberger still couldn’t garner enough votes from viewers to stay in the mix. Fans of the show deduced it would come down to Cyrus and Ratzenberger last night—so it wasn’t that big of a surprise that the former “Cheers” star got cut. However, if Cyrus somehow escapes elimination next week THAT will be more than I can take.