And we’re back!
To quote the late, great “Tonight Show” host Jack Paar — back in 1960 after he walked off the show when NBC censored a joke in which he used the term “water closet”: “As I was saying before I was interrupted…”
The Starr Report returns today, both to the print and Web editions of The Post. It’s great to be back.
First up: “Big Brother” host Julie Chen, who says she’s definitely troubled by the racist, homophobic comments uttered by several of the CBS reality show’s houseguests — including Aaryn Greis — who’ve been overheard on the live, 24/7 “Big Brother” Internet feed. I asked Chen yesterday how she’ll feel when, as the show’s host, she has to come face-to-face with those houseguests who’ve made those offensive comments.
(Tonight is the weekly eviction show, so who knows what might happen?)
“It is tough, and the toughest one hasn’t happened yet, which would be Aaryn,” Chen told me yesterday. “Like anything else emotions run high, whether you’re in the [‘Big Brother’] house or you’re watching as a viewer who’s appalled or offended, as I have been at times this season —and also as the show’s viewers have been. I have to take a beat and say to myself, ‘OK, what’s my job here? What’s going to happen once that person does his or her three-and-a-half-minute live interview with me?’ A lot of the behavior this year can be chalked up to ignorance, youth and immaturity and I’m hopeful I can approach it in the right way — that I can plant a seed in that person’s head where they walk out and, instead of being humiliated or furious or embarrassed, they think, ‘Wow, was I that girl in the house? Was I really that ugly?’ I know everyone wants me to tell them off, but that’s not my job,” Chen says. “Trust me, plenty of other people will do that once she walks out of the house. I have to be a bigger person and a mature host who’s going to be neutral when all is said and done.”
Chen and her co-hosts on “The Talk” will kick off the fourth season of that successful daytime show Sept. 9.
Last, but not least . . .
R&B diva Bettye LaVette, who’s appearing on AMC’s new series “Low Winter Sun,” headlines “Remembering Lennon” Sept. 12. It’s a benefit at City Winery. Also expected: shutterbug Bob Gruen and Jack Douglas, who produced Lennon’s “Double Fantasy” album . . . Victoria’s Secret model Adriana Lima is now the face of AMAZON beverages . . . Omar Hardwick (photo at right) has been cast as the lead in “Power,” a new Starz drama executive-produced by “50 Cent” (aka Curtis Jackson) . . . The new season of CNN’s “Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown” premieres Sunday, Sept. 15 (9 p.m.), with Bourdain in the West Bank and Gaza . . . Who wrote “ ‘Swanee River’?” Ch. 11 will air “The Honeymooners” weekends (11 and 11:30 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays) starting Sept. 14. Somewhere, Art Carney and Jackie Gleason smile. (And the answer to the “$99,000 Question,” as any “Honeymooners” fan can tell you, is Stephen Foster.) What a TV classic. Welcome back.