Jewish World Review Jan. 30, 2004 / 7 Shevat, 5764
Lloyd Grove
The political forehead front; Alies meets Franken; the art of the hype; arrested career development?
http://www.jewishworldreview.com |
NEW YORK Democratic presidential front-runner John Kerry can't seem to put that knotty Botox issue
to rest.
Two prominent New York plastic surgeons after examining "before" and after "photos" posted on the
Drudge Report told us Wednesday that Sen. Kerry exhibits all the signs of a Botox injection.
"Not only is it Botox, but it's classic bad Botox," said Dr. Michael Kane, a surgeon in private practice.
"His forehead is just way too smooth. It looks weird. It's a bizarre appearance that he's got not a wrinkle. That
doesn't happen to 60-year-olds."
Dr. Gerald Ember, an attending plastic surgeon at New York Presbyterian Hospital, agreed.
"The pictures . . . show a marked absence of the horizontal lines of the forehead and wrinkles between
the eyes. Only Botox or a forehead lift would do this," he said. "And I say, good for him!"
In a Tuesday interview with a Boston radio station, the Massachusetts senator was asked about this
column's allegations. Kerry "absolutely" denied receiving Botox treatments, and added: "I've never even heard
it. Where did this come from? . . . I've never even heard of it. Never heard of it."
It was unclear whether Kerry meant he had "never heard" of Botox which his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry,
has publicly acknowledged using or merely that he never heard of the Botox rumors concerning him.
Last year, Kerry denied to a Boston Globe reporter that he had a medical problem only to
acknowledge later that he had been successfully treated for prostate cancer. Kerry explained the fib by saying
he wanted to tell his family first.
Kerry spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter who has been trying for the past week to kill the Botox rumor
fueled by rival campaigns told me the plastic surgery experts are wrong. "Since when do doctors make
diagnoses based on pictures? John Kerry has not ever had any injections of Botox or any other cosmetic
procedure done. . . . It's ridiculous that people are focusing on this and not on real issues."
Cutter added: "There's nothing like coming from behind and winning two very important presidential
primaries to make somebody look better."
LUNCHTIME SHOW
The lunch crowd at Michael's craned their necks Wednesday as Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes
bantered with Fox News nemesis Al Franken.
"Will you go on my radio show?" demanded Franken, who's launching a liberal talk radio venture in a
couple of months. "Remember that I helped you out once when you asked me to come on your radio show."
"I really don't do those things anymore," replied Ailes, who had dropped by the table on his way out of
the restaurant. "I haven't done it in two years."
"Here, I do you a favor, and that's the thanks I get?" Franken persisted.
"Yeah," Ailes fired back, "but you were the only guest who ever demanded to be paid. I think we had to
give you $12."
"That was for cab fare," the comedian insisted.
Franken, my lunch partner, also interrogated Ailes about the cable network's notorious lawsuit against
him for appropriating the Fox News slogan in his book, "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and
Balanced Look at the Right." The publicity over the unsuccessful suit helped turn Franken's book into a huge
best seller.
"Who's idea was it to sue? Was it O'Reilly's?" Franken probed, referring to Fox News' Bill O'Reilly, star
of "The O'Reilly Factor," whose photograph is prominent on the cover of Franken's book.
"I can tell you that it was August and I was on vacation," Ailes parried. "I think I said, 'Let's send this over
to the legal department,' and somebody there must have thought that meant sue. That's not what it meant."
"But was it O'Reilly who asked for the suit?" Franken repeated.
"Let me put it this way: It wasn't my idea and it wasn't the legal department's," Ailes said. "Listen,
talent always wants to sue about everything.
. . . It's the sort of thing that happens in August."
Franken quipped: "I'm planning to call my radio show 'The O'Franken Factor.' Do you think you can sue
me again?"
Ailes just laughed.
THE BRIEFING
THE ART OF THE HYPE: He's got a business to run and he's starring in his own NBC reality series, but
Donald Trump isn't too busy to write a book on the side. "How to Get Rich: Lessons from 'The Apprentice' and
Other Big Deals" will be published in April by Random House. And did The Donald receive a gazillion-dollar
advance? "Let's put it this way we may have to change the name of the company to 'Trump House,'" said
Random House exec Jonathan Karp.
ARRESTED CAREER DEVELOPMENT?: Was Julia Louis-Dreyfus too greedy for her own good? The
upcoming TV Guide reports that the "Seinfeld" star whose short-lived NBC sitcom, "Watching Ellie," was
canceled last year did herself out of a plum part in the acclaimed Fox TV sitcom "Arrested Development" by
demanding too much money. "The show has a large ensemble," said an insider, "and they just couldn't afford
her." But Dreyfus's manager, Judy Hofflund, told me Thursday that "money has nothing to do with it, and the truth
of the matter is that they've come back to her and we're talking again." If a deal is made, Dreyfus would appear
in two episodes as a blind attorney assigned to prosecute Jeffrey Tambor.
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© 2003, Creators Syndicate
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