1-20-11 - American Idol, Australia and an Interview with Dog the Bounty Hunter

In case you missed it...

AMERICAN IDOL, PIERS MORGAN, PALIN/HANNITY, GABRIELLE GIFFORD AND LOSS
Rosie and the staff started today's broadcast discussing last night's American Idol!  Rosie LOVED it!  She thought it was fantastic and a much better show because of the new judges.  She thought Jennifer Lopez was delightful as a judge.  And everyone agreed that JLo is the most beautiful woman in the world.  Rosie thought JLo was "gorgeous, talented, kind, and genuine."  Deirdre also loved last night's episode and loved how Steven Tyler would sing along with the contestants.  They all enjoyed the fact that there wasn't as much cruelty as there has been in other seasons.  Rosie thought the show was beautiful, inspiring and made her want to tune in again.   Janette liked how they showed JLo struggling with having to say 'no' to some of the contestants and showing how that was hard for her.  Rosie thought there was a beautiful camaraderie amongst the three judges and it really showed through.  Now that American Idol is on Rosie said she's not going to be watching Live To Dance anymore.  Deirdre thinks the bar has been raised on American Idol  and is happy that the winner now gets a guaranteed record contract with Interscope. 

Rosie was interested when she heard Piers Morgan's ratings dropped in half between his Oprah premiere and his Howard Stern show.  Janette heard a portion of Howard Stern talking about the interview where he discussed his frustrations over being edited.  Rosie thinks Piers missed a tremendous opportunity with his interview with Howard to ask some really interesting questions and it showed he can't play ball with the big boys.  Rosie said she's curious to see if that show is even going to make it without getting canceled.  Rosie asked the staff if any of them had seen the Hannity/Palin interview.  She recommended her staff and listeners see it "just for fun" and all she could say about it was "Oh, dear Lord."  Better yet, she recommended everyone watch Jon Stewart's interpretation of it.  She said the interview was so absurd she couldn't even do it justice by trying to explain it over the air.  Piers Morgan's interview last night was with Condoleezza Rice who doesn't regret at all taking America to war.  Janette was so frustrated by Rice's complete revision of history and her inability to admit to any mistakes.  Janette said she has a lot more respect for politicians who are able to admit they make mistakes though she isn't fond of the Obama administration because she doesn't feel anyone in office can fix our country.  Rosie asked Janette why she didn't like Obama so much and Janette said she was turned off by him during the nomination process and when he said he'd have us out of Iraq in 60 days.  She said the minute Obama got the nomination he dropped that stance and adopted what Hilary Clinton was saying all along. 

Rosie and the staff were all so happy to hear that Gabrielle Giffords is standing up and ready to be released from the hospital.  Rosie said it is unbelievably wonderful and it makes her believe that there is some sport of divine intervention as to why she's still with us.  Rosie said it's as if Giffords was destined to survive.  Janette said there's comfort in believing we all have a destiny in when it's time for you to die but if you have to believe it for Gabrielle you have to believe it for the 9 year-old too.  Rosie said hearing of the 9 year-old's murder, as a mother, it was heartbreaking for her to think of all of the years and experiences that little girl was robbed of.   She doesn't think the girl's life was of more value then any of the other victims only that there is something so innately unjust when a child is killed.  Rosie mentioned an interview she saw with Rabbi Shmuley and Joy Behar where he discusses the use of the word blood libel.  She said Rabbi Shmuley is very articulate and wise and what he said really made sense to her.  Going back to the topic of the young girl that was killed in the Arizona shooting, Deirdre spoke a little bit about how upsetting the death of the young girl was to her.  Janette didn't feel the same.  She said for her, the loss of the 30 year-old, who was in the prime of his life was more upsetting.  Rosie couldn't believe Janette was saying that.   Shoshana said it isn't the death of the child that makes her heart-broken as much as thinking of the family and the parents of the child that really upsets her.    Finally, even though Rosie thinks it's a tragic state of affairs that the country looked to what Sarah Palin had to say following the Arizona shootings, she said we need to stop knit-picking every single thing Palin says.  Even though she does still believe Palin is a detriment to this country. 

JOAN RIVERS BANNED, ROSIE INTRODUCES RUPERT AND RUSH OFFENDS CHINESE 
The staff then discussed how Joan Rivers was banned from Fox because of some comments she made about Sarah Palin.   Joan called Palin "stupid" and said she deserves partial blame for the Arizona shooting.  Fox is saying they didn't ban her - that the interview was scheduled for a big news day so the booker mistakenly canceled her instead of rescheduling her.  Deirdre, who has been a booker for 25 years said she's never once done that and doesn't see how that could possibly have happened.  Rosie said it made her think Rupert Murdoch's belief in Sarah Palin is failing and he's losing his evil, golden, touch. 

Rosie then told a hilarious story about the time she emceed an awards ceremony for celebrating Women in Media while she was still working on The View.  Her publicist, Cindi Berger, had set up the event and neglected to tell her she would have to be introducing Rupert Murdoch!  Rosie told Cindi she couldn't possibly introduce the man and Cindi told her she needed to be quiet and do it.  Rosie said she was in such a state of rage about it she made a few comments about Murdoch during her introduction.  She said something like, "This is a celebration of women who change the world and no one understands why Rupert is on the list of guests...."  and something like she was "looking for numbers on his head and there weren't any (as in the numbers 666)." 

This then led the staff to discussing the time Rosie unknowingly used a racial slur against people of Chinese origin.  What happened first was Danny Devito was a guest on The View and he was drunk!  That story literally became International news and people around the world were discussing it!  On The View Rosie imitated a Chinese news correspondent reporting the story and unknowingly used a racial slur "Ching Cong" in her imitation. Rosie had no idea that the phrase "Ching, Chong" was really offensive to the Chinese people.  Rosie said the event released a hell-fire in the press and she had no idea it was equatable to the "N" word.  Now, it seems Rush Limbaugh has done the same thing.  They listened to the audio of Rush using the phrase "Ching Chong" in his imitation of the Chinese President.   None of the staff members thought what Rush did was offensive or mean-spirited.  Janette said you must look at a person's intent to harm and said political correctness has gone overboard.  There's an article asking if Rush will be judged for use of the phrase as Rosie was judged by the Right.  Since Rosie had no idea the term was offensive and didn't mean to hurt anyone, she wondered how her use of it was any different from imitating any other language or the  Swedish Chef. Rosie said she eventually apologized for the use of the term because of two YouTube videos.  One was from a guy on YouTube who she thought explained brilliantly the origins of why the term is so offensive.   The second video was of a English woman who said if she had accidentally stepped on someone's foot she would apologize- not because she meant to do it but because it hurt the other person.   Rosie thought that was good reasoning so she did.

DOG IS IN THE HOUSE, SCRABBLE, AND SHOSHANA HAS A MOUSE
Rosie said her two youngest children took a sick day because Dog The Bounty Hunter and his wife will be in the studio!   Both Blake and Vivi are HUGE fans of the show.  Vivi even wants to be a bounty hunter when she grows up! Rosie said this is the first celebrity they've ever been interested in meeting and she couldn't wait to see her kids' reactions when they met him.  She asked Pete to take her iPhone and get it on video for her.  Rosie wondered if anyone else was even very interested in Dog and his wife and Pete and Deirdre set her straight!  Pete said he's never gotten a phone-call or email over a guest on the show before and he's received 4 phone-calls from friends and family over Dog.  Deirdre agreed and said there's a huge buzz on the Internet about having him as a guest. 

Rosie and Pete then discussed their obsessions with playing Scrabble on their iPhones.  Rosie said she's been playing Scrabble on "normal" level and never losing.  Then she decided to switch it up to "difficult" and said she was losing every time so she switched back.  Pete likes to play Rosie's friend/nanny Tanya because he said they're very evenly matched and that makes for great competition. 

Rosie said she's been so into Scrabble she's even been reading the Scrabble Dictionary for fun!  They discussed the ability to anagram and how once you have that ability, it crosses you into a whole new category of Scrabble playing. 

Pete said he wants to start playing "themed Scrabble" in which you have to place words that have to do with a specific theme, like nautical for example.  In a nautical theme, all words played in the game must have something to do with the sea. 

Shoshana had stressful news.  She said there's a mouse in her house!  About 6 months ago she had a total panic attack over a mouse in her house.  Once she knew it was in her apartment she couldn't sleep.  They lined the apartment with traps and it took a month to get rid of it.   Recently, she thought she heard something in her room and knew it was another mouse.  This time she's more okay with it because she'll be moving in two weeks.  But the mouse refuses to stay hidden and she keeps seeing it around!  Janette recommended Shoshana get a cat and Shoshana said she'd rather have a mouse than a cat. 

OPRAH IN AUSTRALIA AND TECHNOLOGY REPLACING PERSON TO PERSON CONTACT
Rosie has been loving Oprah's trip to Australia for her ultimate viewers.  Rosie said her Ex, Kelli and her girlfriend and their friends, have just returned from a 10 day trip to Australia and hearing them talk about it made Rosie really want to go.  Kelli told Rosie in Australia, it felt as if there was a culture there of peace and happiness and she appreciated how they placed great importance on equality.  Rosie said hearing Kelli speak of it and watching Oprah document her trip to Australia made her really want to go there.

Rosie said she's been out to dinner recently and looked around and all you see is people on their Blackberry's and iPhones.  She wondered what that's doing to the culture as a whole.  Shoshana said she has lots of young friends in business and one thing it means is that you're never "off" from your job.  Parker had his phone taken away but when he had it he couldn't talk to her at dinner without texting.  Rosie said she looked around and parents were on their phones and kids were on their DS's.  Rosie said she's leaving for Sundance today and sees no point in taking her computer.  She has her iPhone and doesn't want the hassle of having to carry her computer with her.  She said turning off the blog questions has also given her a lot more peace and she doesn't need to be spending as much time online when she could be doing other things.  While Janette agrees with Rosie, she said she's met a lot of wonderful people through a virtual world.  Rosie agreed with that because she too has met a lot of wonderful people through the Internet but said sometimes it can distract you from real life.  Shoshana agreed.  She said she will talk to many friends online and then realize she hasn't really interacted with anyone face-to-face in a long time.  She said there's no replacement for human-to-human interaction.

Rosie said a friend of hers had a crisis.  She was breaking up with her husband, they have kids and they were emailing and her friend told her she cannot stop crying.  So, Rosie picked up the phone and called her but the woman didn't answer.  Rosie thought emailing must have been more comfortable for her friend as opposed the the intimacy of a phone conversation.   While Shoshana prefers texting over phone-calls Janette refuses to text.  She said she won't text and she won't even read texts if you text her.  Janette said she prefers email but likes being hard to get a hold of.   

DOG THE BOUNTY HUNTER
Rosie then introduced Duane Chapman and his wife Beth from the television series Dog the Bounty Hunter!  Dog sounded really happy to be there and complimented Rosie on what a real house and family she had going on.  He said he was so impressed and almost stunned at the normalcy of her life.  He said she lives in a beautiful neighborhood but it's "normal" and that surprised him. 

Rosie congratulated Beth and Dog on their 200th episode of their show!  Dog said they were only supposed to go one season and now they've made it to 200 shows which is a huge milestone in television.  Dog wasn't sure the show could continue because there's a bail bondsman in every small town in America.  He said the show has opened the door to the secret world of bail bondsmen. 

Rosie said she's been a fan of the show since its inception but it's her two youngest kids, Blake and Vivi, who are his newest fans!  Rosie said it was Blake who pointed out to her that they use "paintball guns" instead of real guns.   Beth explained that they're not actually "paintball guns" but "pepper-ball guns."  She said they shoot a non-lethal bullet that feels like a punch from Mike Tyson and makes it so you can't breathe and that is enough of a deterrent for what they're doing. 

Rosie asked Dog and Beth how they met.  Turns out Dog was Beth's bondsman!  When Dog was her bail bondsman he was interested in Beth but he doesn't date his clients.  He said he made the judge get rid of her sentence and then asked her out on a date. Beth joked that Dog's idea of a date was going out on a bounty with him!  

Dog recommended that Rosie read his books entitled Where Mercy Is Shown Mercy Is Given and You Can Run But You Can't Hide to really learn more about him and his past.   Rosie asked Dog about his many marriages and Dog said he was raised that when you fall in love you get married.  And he did.  He said he still cares for all his ex-spouses.  Dog and Beth have been married for 5 years and he said he's realizing it's getting harder and harder for him to lie to her because she knows him so well.  ;)

Rosie and Dog discussed the time a family member unknowingly taped him saying the N Word and when his show was canceled for a period of time because of it.  Dog said he grew up in the cotton fields of Texas where the word was used a lot but nowadays he's realized it's different.  In order to fix the problem, he did a lot of outreach work with organizations such as CORE and the children of Los Angeles.  After 5 months off the air, A&E came back to Dog and asked him to come back, partly because of his huge fan base.  Dog said he refused to blame the use of the word on alcohol like the "spin-doctors" tried to convince him to do. 

Rosie loves how Dog's show is all about second chances and said that's the part of the show that grabs everyone's heart.  She also loves how Dog drives the criminals he catches to the prison and how then he talks to them about redemption.  Rosie asked how Dog got a second chance.  Dog said he spent 18 months in a jail in Texas when he was 22 years old for an accessory to murder charge.  He wanted to erase the "X" he had on his back and then he met Tony Robbins and Martin Sheen.  They saw the idea for a TV show in him and that's how the show was born.    Dog said he asked for forgiveness from God for what he has done in his past. 

Rosie and Dog then talked about the recent shooting in Arizona and how wrong it is to blame the parents of the shooter for something their child did.  They also talked about the need of redemption and forgiveness for everyone.  They talked about the need to do gun license renewals and wondered if Jared Loughner had had a renewal if someone might have seen a red flag.   

Rosie asked Dog is he's ever scared of what could happen when he's catching a suspect.  Dog said he's never scared but he's sometimes concerned and always cautious.  Dog said he takes a complete look at the profile of anyone he catches to try to learn everything about them before he goes to get them.  Rosie, Beth and Dog talked about bail bondsman and how they use the people and things closest to the suspects to get to them.   

Rosie and Dog also discussed the Columbine High School massacre and how guns and bullets can be purchased at places like WalMart and Kmart.  Rosie said when Columbine happened she realized she was representing a company (Kmart) that sold bullets.  Beth stressed the fact that we cannot lose our right to bear arms and Rosie said we, as a country, still need sensible gun legislation.

Rosie thanked Beth and Dog for coming to the interview and told them she cannot wait to read his books!  You can follow Beth on Twitter HERE! 

Rosie closed the show.

and that's what you missed -kw