Celebrity

Jerry Springer, Politician-Turned-TV Ringmaster, Dies At 79

Published

2 years ago

2023-04-27

CINCINNATI, Ohio – Jerry Springer, the 79-year-old former mayor and television anchor whose namesake TV show featured a three-ring circus of dysfunctional families eager to bare all on weekday afternoons, including brawls, vulgarity, and blurred images of nudity, died Thursday.

In its heyday, “The Jerry Springer Show” was a rating juggernaut and a cultural pariah in the United States, synonymous with filthy drama. Over its 27-year history, the daytime talk show was a favorite American guilty pleasure, beating Oprah Winfrey’s show at one point. It was known for chair-throwing and bleep-filled confrontations.

Springer described it as “escapist entertainment,” while others saw it as contributing to the dumbing-down of American societal ideals.

“Jerry’s ability to connect with people was at the heart of his success in everything he tried, whether that was politics, broadcasting, or just joking with people on the street who wanted a photo or a word,” Jene Galvin, a family representative and Springer’s friend since 1970, said in a statement. “He is irreplaceable, and his loss is heartbreaking, but memories of his intellect, heart, and sense of humor will live on.”

According to the statement, Jerry Springer died quietly at home in suburban Chicago following a brief illness.

Springer joked on Twitter that he was a “talk show host, ringmaster of civilization’s end.” He’d also told folks, jokingly, that his desire for them was “may you never be on my show.”

The show terminated in 2018 after more than 4,000 episodes, never veering from its fundamental salaciousness: some of its final episodes had names like “Stripper Sex Turned Me Straight,” “Stop Pimpin’ My Twin Sister,” and “Hooking Up With My Therapist.”

Springer provided a defense against distaste in a “Too Hot For TV” film broadcast in the late 1990s when his daily program approached 7 million viewers.

“Look, television does not and must not create values; it is simply a picture of everything that is out there — the good, the bad, and the ugly,” Springer said, adding, “Believe this: The politicians and companies that seek to control what each of us may watch are a far greater danger to America and our prized freedom than any of our guests have ever been or could be.”

He also claimed that the participants in his show volunteered to be subjected to whatever scorn or humiliation was in store.

Gerald Norman Springer was born on February 13, 1944, at a London tube station used as a bomb shelter. His parents, Richard and Margot, were German Jews who fled to England during the Holocaust, resulting in numerous relatives’ deaths in Nazi gas chambers. They moved to the United States when their kid was five years old and resided in the Queens neighborhood of New York City, where Springer acquired his first Yankees baseball gear and became a lifetime admirer.

He attended Tulane University for political science and Northwestern University for law. He was involved in politics for much of his adult life, even considering a bid for governor of Ohio in 2017.

He started as an adviser in Robert F. Kennedy’s disastrous 1968 presidential campaign. Springer, who worked for a law company in Cincinnati, campaigned unsuccessfully for Congress in 1970 before being elected to the city council in 1971.

Jerry Springer resigned in 1974, citing “an abrupt move that shook Cincinnati’s political community” in The Cincinnati Enquirer. He claimed “very personal family considerations,” although he did not disclose a vice investigation involving prostitution. Springer later admitted to paying prostitutes with personal checks, which could have been the subject of one of his future episodes.

Jerry Springer considered a Senate run in 2003.

He had married Micki Velton the previous year when he was 30. Katie was born to her parents, who divorced in 1994.

Springer soon rose through the political ranks, obtaining a council member in 1975 and then mayor in 1977. He then became a renowned nighttime political commentator on local television. He and co-anchor Norma Rashid eventually helped NBC station WLWT-TV’s broadcast become the top-rated news show in the Cincinnati market.

Springer’s talk show debuted in 1991 with a more traditional structure, but after he departed WLWT in 1993, it was given a sleazy makeover.

It was voted No. 1 on TV Guide’s list of the “Worst Shows in Television History,” but it was rated gold. Springer became a superstar as a result, and she went on to host a liberal radio talk show and “America’s Got Talent,” star in the film “Ringmaster,” and compete in “Dancing With the Stars.”

“With all of the joking I do with the show, I’m fully aware and thank God every day that my life has taken this incredible turn because of this silly show,” Springer said to Cincinnati Enquirer media reporter John Kiesewetter in 2011.

Jerry Springer considered a Senate run in 2003, even before Donald Trump’s political rise from reality TV celebrity, hoping to attract “nontraditional voters,” individuals “who believe most politics are bull.”

“I connect with a whole bunch of people who probably connect to me right now more than a traditional politician,” Springer. He opposed the Iraq war and supported increasing public healthcare but did not run.

Jerry Springer also frequently referred to the country he immigrated to at age five as “a beacon of light for the rest of the world.”

Jerry Springer told a Democratic rally in 2003, “I have no other motivation than to say I love this country.”

Jerry Springer had a nationally syndicated “Judge Jerry” show in 2019 and continued to speak out on a podcast about anything that was on his mind, but his shock value had dwindled in the new era of reality television and combative cable TV talk shows.

David Bianculli, a professor at Monmouth University and a television historian, claimed in 2018 that “real life lapped him not only by other programs but by other programs.”

Despite the constraints Springer’s show imposed on his political ambitions, he accepted its legacy. Springer mentioned a quotation by then-National Review pundit Jonah Goldberg in a 2003 fund-raising infomercial ahead of a probable U.S. Senate candidature the following year, who warned of new people brought to the polls by Springer, including “slack-jawed yokels, hicks, weirdos, pervs, and whatnots.”

Springer mentioned the quote in the infomercial and wanted to reach out to “regulators.”

SOURCE – (AP)

Celebrity

Jason Kelce Smashes Football Fan’s Phone

Published

3 weeks ago

2024-11-02

Geoff Brown

Jason Kelce Smashes College Football Fan's Phone

Retired Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce destroyed a Penn State football fan’s phone after the alleged heckler called his brother, Travis Kelce, a fag.

In now-viral footage published on X (previously Twitter) on Saturday, Nov. 2, the retired Philadelphia Eagles great was seen accompanied by football fans outside Beaver Stadium in State College, Pa., for the Penn State-Ohio State game.

As the individual capturing the tape lifted a fist to Jason, 36, and called his name for a fist bump, another man nearby hurled the homophobic slur at the retired Philadelphia Eagles star.

Hey, Kelce. How does it feel that your brother is a queer dating Taylor Swift?” the man questioned, referring to Travis, 34, who has been seeing Swift since 2023. Jason turned around seconds later, snatched the man’s phone, and crushed it to the ground.

“Looked like a Penn State student was getting in Kelce’s face for no reason,” the original X user who submitted the video remarked. “Wild scene in State College.”

“Kelce how does it feel that your brother is a f****t for dating Taylor Swift?”

Jason Kelce proceeded to slam this kids phone on the ground.

Looked like a Penn State student was getting in Kelce’s face for no reason. Wild scene in State College pic.twitter.com/3PEdZXWhSg

— Chives (@jarrett_daveler) November 2, 2024

Additional footage on X shows Jason smashing the phone on asphalt before picking it up and walking away. The phone’s owner, wearing a Penn State hoodie at the time of the incident, was shown in many videos strolling closely behind Jason and recording him before the conflict occurred.

Another footage published on X, which appears to have been filmed after Jason shattered the man’s phone, showed the hooded Penn State supporter trudging through a mob to pick up his phone off the ground.

“Give me my phone, bro,” he seemed to say to Jason.

The NFL alum seized the gadget first, then stood in front of the man and asked, “Who’s the fag now?” Others appeared to interfere.

The incident occurred while Jason was at Beaver Stadium for an appearance on ESPN’s College GameDay. The Ohio State Buckeyes won Saturday’s game 20-13 over the Penn State Nittany Lions.

Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s Romantic Date Night

Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s Romantic Date Night Has Alarming Details.

Celebrity

Shaun White’s Proposal To Nina Dobrev Was Romantic Gold

Published

3 weeks ago

2024-10-30

Kiara Grace

Shaun White, the Olympic snowboarding champion, already has an impressive medal tally, but his surprise proposal to Nina Dobrev deserves a gold medal.

On Wednesday, the couple announced their engagement on Instagram. Dobrev posted photographs of the two hugging under an arch of white roses and showing off her five-carat Lorraine Schwartz engagement ring.

“RIP boyfriend, hello fiancé,” Dobrev said in the caption.

However, the photographs only tell half the tale, as Shaun devised an elaborate plan to surprise Dobrev with his proposal.

Shaun White’s Proposal To Nina Dobrev Was Romantic Gold

According to a Vogue interview published Wednesday, Shaun said he assembled a team of people from the couple’s inner circle and Vogue personnel to trick Dobrev into thinking she had been invited to an intimate dinner party with Anna Wintour.

White claimed that his publicist emailed Dobrev a forged invitation to the event, which was scheduled to take place at the Golden Swan in New York City.

Dobrev accepted the invitation, joking that Shaun made it “look so legitimate.”

He even asked Dobrev’s stylist to outfit her in Chanel for the event.

Dobrev said she recognized what was happening when she entered the venue and saw White standing beneath the flowery arch.

Shaun’s Proposal To Nina Dobrev Was Romantic Gold

“I went into shock,” Dobrev admitted, later adding that White “said all the right things” before she agreed.

According to the publication, after Shaun proposed, the couple partied into the early morning hours with close friends and relatives.

“Best night of my life,” Shaun captioned his Instagram story on Wednesday.

The duo first became romantically involved in 2020, and they have since publicly recorded their relationship, globe vacations, and White’s Olympic farewell on social media.

SOURCE | CNN

Celebrity

Hollywood Actress Teri Garr Passes Away at 79

Published

3 weeks ago

2024-10-30

Geoff Brown

Hollywood Actress Teri Garr Passes Away at 79

Teri Garr, known for her roles in classics like "Young Frankenstein" and "Tootsie," has passed away at 79.

Hollywood actress Teri Garr, known for her roles in classics like “Young Frankenstein” and “Tootsie,” has passed away at 79. She died Tuesday of multiple sclerosis “surrounded by family and friends,” said publicist Heidi Schaeffer.

Admirers took to social media in her honor, with writer-director Paul Feig calling her “truly one of my comedy heroes. I couldn’t have loved her more” and screenwriter Cinco Paul saying: “Never the star, but always shining. She made everything she was in better.”

Throughout her career, the performer, often known as Terri, Terry, or Terry Ann, seemed destined for show business from a young age.

Her father was Eddie Garr, a well-known vaudeville comic, and her mother was Phyllis Lind, one of the original high-kicking Rockettes at New York’s Radio City Music Hall. Their daughter began dancing classes at six and was performing with the San Francisco and Los Angeles ballet companies by age fourteen.

She was 16 years old when she joined the road crew of “West Side Story” in Los Angeles, and she began starring in small roles in films as early as 1963.

In an interview from 1988, she described how she landed the role in “West Side Story.” After being rejected at her initial audition, she returned the following day dressed differently and was accepted.

Teri Garr, a comedian

Teri Garr then found steady work as a movie dancer, appearing in the chorus of nine Elvis Presley films, including “Viva Las Vegas,” “Roustabout,” and “Clambake.”

She has also appeared on various television shows, including “Star Trek,” “Dr. Kildare,” and “Batman,” and was a featured dancer on the rock ‘n’ roll music show “Shindig,” the rock concert performance “T.A.M.I.,” and a cast member of “The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour.”

Her breakthrough role was as Gene Hackman’s girlfriend in Francis Ford Coppola’s 1974 thriller The Conversation. This led to an interview with Mel Brooks, who offered her the Gene Wilder’s German lab assistant role in Young Frankenstein if she could speak with a German accent.

“Cher had this German woman, Renata, making wigs, so I got the accent from her,” Garr once said.

The film established her as a great comic performer, with New Yorker film writer Pauline Kael calling her “the funniest neurotic dizzy dame on screen.”

Her big smile and off-center appeal helped her land roles in “Oh, God!” with George Burns and John Denver, “Mr. Mom” (as Michael Keaton’s wife), and “Tootsie,” in which she played the girlfriend who loses Dustin Hoffman to Jessica Lange and discovers he has dressed up as a woman to revive his career.

A gift for spontaneous humor

Teri Garr, best known for comedy, has shown in films such as Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Black Stallion, and The Escape Artist that she can also tackle drama.

She had a gift for spontaneous humor, frequently playing David Letterman’s foil during early guest appearances on N.B.C.’s “Late Night With David Letterman”.

Her appearances grew so frequent, and the pair’s good-natured bickering so convincing that rumors of romantic involvement circulated for a while. Years later, Letterman acknowledged those early appearances with helping the program become a success.

During those years, Garr began to experience “a little beeping or ticking” in her right leg. It started in 1983 and expanded to her right arm, but she thought she could handle it. By 1999, her symptoms had gotten so bad that she saw a doctor and was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

After disclosing her diagnosis, Garr became a spokesman for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, giving hilarious remarks at events in the United States and Canada.

Source: AP
“