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February 10, 2012
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David G. Savage: Why activists may not be in a hurry to have High Court rule on alternative marriage
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Mark Clayton: How did Anonymous hackers eavesdrop on FBI and Scotland Yard?
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February 2, 2012
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Brian Bennett: US officials see increasing threat of domestic attack from Iran
Emily Brandon: How to Take Advantage of New 401(k) Fee Disclosures
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January 30, 2012
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Meg Handley: Banks Revamping Rewards Programs to Woo Customers
January 27, 2012
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Ed Koch: To the New York Times, calling for the murder of Jews by those capable of having their incitement taken seriously isn't news
Jeannine Stein: Mental illness struck one in five U.S. adults in 2010: Report
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Fred Weir: Putin: Multiethnic Russia cannot survive as a US-style 'melting pot'; must find its own way
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January 24, 2012
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Erika Bolstad: Black conservatives gather to talk about gaining strength
January 23, 2012
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Ali Safi: U.S. envoy gives Taliban terms for peace talks
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January 12, 2012
Warren Richey: Landmark Supreme Court ruling a 'resounding win' for religious groups
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January 11, 2012
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Tom Hussain: Pakistan -- recipient of more than $21 billion in civilian and military aid -- speeds pursuit of Iranian pipeline, defying US
David G. Savage: High court signals it won't be loosening TV's 'indecency' rules
Stephen Ceasar: Oklahoma's Islamic law amendment can't go into effect, court rules
January 10, 2012
Reza Kahlili: From an ex-CIA spy: US must exploit new split in Iran's Revolutionary Guard
Karen Kaplan: Study: Nicotine replacement products ineffective when used in real-life situations
January 9, 2012
Michael Doyle: Put through legal hell over dream home, couple fought back hard --- all the way to Supreme Court
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Jewish World Review
August 10, 2006
/ 16 Menachem-Av, 5766
Once you get to know him, Hasselhoff isn't so funny
By
Joel Stein
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Five years ago, this column would have been packed with David Hasselhoff jokes. But I got to know the man, and watching a nice guy fall apart isn't as funny to me as it is to the rest of you. So this column will only have an average amount of David Hasselhoff jokes.
Hasselhoff emerged this summer as our culture's new self-appointed pinata, doing self-parodying commercials, calling himself "The Hoff" on "America's Got Talent," working on a musical about his life and generally stealing the crown of camp from William Shatner, Regis Philbin and Joe Lieberman. All while going through an ugly divorce and being involved in an unusual number of public disturbances, especially for a recovering alcoholic. Disturbances that would have gotten a lot more attention if he didn't like us Jews so much.
I met Hasselhoff two years ago, when the producers of a sitcom I was writing about Time magazine cast the former "Baywatch" star to play the womanizing war correspondent. I was sitting in my office at the magazine when the phone rang. I picked it up with my usual corporate greeting and the voice on the other end said, "Hasselhoff." This was why I wanted to get into Hollywood.
Hasselhoff told me how much he liked my script. "I read the whole thing," he said. Because it was 44 pages of giant-margined, double-space type, much of it lines he had to memorize, I failed to express as much appreciation as he was looking for. "You know how many `Baywatch' scripts I read all the way through?" he asked. "Zero."
Once we started shooting the pilot, everyone loved the guy. The only strange thing about him was that he didn't act so much like David Hasselhoff as like a David Hasselhoff impersonator who, while a huge fan of David Hasselhoff, was in on the joke. When he was introduced at the table reading, he responded not by smiling or waving but by miming swimming like a lifeguard.
A few days later, he stopped me in the hall and asked, "Are you big in Germany?" Confused, I told him that neither I, nor my people, were. "Well, I am," he said, and walked away. When our lead actor, Colin Hanks, said he had heard Hasselhoff's song "Looking for Freedom" played over a news segment about the Berlin Wall that morning, Hasselhoff responded, excitedly, "I was just listening to that song in my car!" Then he started singing it. A few weeks after our pilot was rejected, Hasselhoff, who had been in rehab two years before, was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving and checked himself back in. Months later, I talked to him on the phone while a friend at Time was interviewing him about his cameo in "The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie." He said he had recovered, and he sent both of us a cake. Colin Hanks never sent me so much as a muffin.
Knowing his history, I didn't think it was so funny when he appeared bloated and crying in the audience at "American Idol." And when his wife divorced him and accused him of beating her, and he showed up in a cast from slicing four tendons and an artery by putting his arm through a chandelier in a "shaving accident." I didn't think it was as funny as everyone else.
This has happened to me before. I spent two days with Anna Nicole Smith, and after seeing how nice she was and how much trouble she had completing basic tasks, such as speaking, I didn't find her as amusing anymore. Like Smith, Hasselhoff, who owned part of "Baywatch," has tons of money and fans and is really good-looking, so I'm not asking anyone to feel sorry for them.
It's me I'm worried about. Humor comes from ignorance, naivete and emotional distance; every real experience cuts down on those skills. That's one reason that comedians get less funny as they grow older and that the smart oneslike Bill Murray and Steve Martinchoose more serious work.
So either I'm going to have to transition into a more serious kind of columnist or studiously avoid any emotional growth. And serious columns sound like they require a lot of research. Godspeed, Hoff.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Joel Stein is a Los Angeles Times columnist. Comment by clicking here.
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