Anderson is a Softie

I've Been Banned From Showbiz Tonight!

Posted by Michael Musto at 3:30 PM, March 16, 2009

Last year, I was on HN's (i.e. CNN Headline News') entertainment show Showbiz Tonight quite a few times and enjoyed the chance to weigh in on gossip topics with my usual wisecracks. But the honeymoon seemed to falter once I went too far and said that a certain reality star who was being sent to jail "would become somebody's bitch." That was cut and they forgave me, but I got back-of-the-bus treatment after that, including being booked for the day before Thanksgiving, then getting canceled on the same day! (As a free soundbite whore, you learn how to endure such indignities. You have no choice!)

And after another appearance or two, I was OFF the bus. The second the new year started, the show's producers lost my number, and clearly I am as banned from that venue as Ashley Dupre would be from a virgins-only chat group.

Was it the fact that I was too saucy? Too scary? Too lame? Did I need a stronger hand, did they crave a lighter touch? Did I forget that even in talking about trashy reality show stars, you have to be reasonably tasteful on certain programs?

Or is it that I write gossip about CNN's Anderson Cooper, who looked a bit startled when I ran into him there once. But I adore Anderson and I only write the same amount of gossip about him as I would about any other major name. Besides, he's such a softie I sincerely doubt he'd wield his power for something so eminently lightweight!

So what is it--that I suck?