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Created 03/05/08
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1
Adding Insult to Introduction
College presidents generally don't slam their guest speakers, but when Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accepted an invitation to speak at Columbia University, critics excoriated the school for giving a dictator such a lofty platform. But instead of rescinding the invite, Columbia president Lee Bollinger introduced Ahmadinejad by noting that Mahmoud resembles a "petty and cruel dictator" and that his denial of the Holocaust is "ridiculous." Bollinger's remarks outraged chancellors of Iranian universities, one of whom said, "Insult, in a scholarly atmosphere, to the president of a country...is deeply shameful." Many in the U.S. agreed.
2
Parisian Outburst
What could be worse for a celebutante than going to jail? Being granted an early release and then getting tossed right back in the slammer. After Paris Hilton had served three days of her 45-day sentence for driving with a suspended license, the Los Angeles sheriff reassigned her to home confinement, in part because Hilton was suffering from an undisclosed medical condition. But a judge quickly ordered her to go back to the big house, prompting Hilton to cry out in court, "It's not right! Mom!" She ended up serving a total of 23 days in detention, including her day of home confinement.
3
Father Knows Best
One of Hollywood's ugliest breakups got even nastier in April when Alec Baldwin accused his ex, Kim Basinger, of leaking to a gossip website the vitriolic voicemail he had left on their daughter, Ireland's, phone. After the 11-year-old missed a scheduled phone conversation with Baldwin — the two live on opposite coasts — the actor called the girl a "rude, thoughtless little pig" and said he was going to "straighten your ass out." Baldwin publicly apologized for the voicemail and said he had "been driven to the edge" by his ex-wife's attempts to turn their daughter against him. Basinger denied releasing the tape to the media.
4
Father Knows Best, Baywatch Edition
In what he characterized as "one night of relapse," recovering alcoholic and former Baywatch star David Hasselhoff was captured in a home video — made by his teenage daughters in May — lying on the floor and clumsily eating a hamburger as one of the girls chastised him for drinking. The actor, who later admitted he was inebriated in the video, said his daughters made the tape to show him how he acts when drunk. "I have learned from it, and I am back on my game," he said, adding that the video was released deliberately during a custody battle with his ex-wife, Pamela Bach. Hasselhoff ended up getting full custody of his children.
5
Dial 1-800-EAT-CROW
Washington had been buzzing for months about which political bigwigs would appear on the phone list of Deborah Jean Palfrey — better known as the "D.C. Madam" — when Louisiana Senator David Vitter admitted he had made calls to the alleged prostitution ring. The conservative Republican, who had called for Bill Clinton to resign during the Monica Lewinsky scandal, apologized to "all those I have let down." Meanwhile, his wife, who once said that she was "a lot more like Lorena Bobbitt than Hillary" and that she would "[walk] away with one thing, and it's not alimony" if her husband ever cheated on her, announced at a press conference that she had forgiven him and that "like all marriages, ours is not perfect."
6
Britney's Zombie Shuffle
It was supposed to be her comeback. But Britney Spears' lethargic performance at the MTV Video Music Awards in September was just plain excruciating. Sporting an ill-fitting wig, the pop phenomenon — who in February had shaved her head in between stints at rehab facilities — barely moved her hips or her lips onstage. The awards-show debacle landed her a spot on the cover of nearly every tabloid that week. And critics delighted in noting that the song she lifelessly stumbled through was titled Gimme More.
7
Antagonistic Views
During Rosie O'Donnell's short-lived tenure on The View, the liberal comedienne often sparred with conservative co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck, but on May 23 they fought their last battle. After O'Donnell was accused on other talk shows of calling U.S. troops terrorists — prompted by an on-air debate with Hasselbeck over the meaning of the work "terrorist" — O'Donnell assailed Hasselbeck for not defending her against such critics. "You said nothing, and that's cowardly," O'Donnell said. "Do not call me a coward," Hasselbeck shot back, and their five-minute face-off, aired in a split-screen, escalated to the point where co-host Joy Behar asked, "Who is directing this show? Let's go to commercial." Two days later, Rosie quit The View.
8
Award-Show Blooper
When Sally Field accepted an Emmy Award for Best Actress for her role as a mother whose son served in Iraq and Afghanistan, she thanked the cast, crew, caterers and others, before trying to make a broader statement about women and war. "Let's face it," she said. "If the mothers ruled the world, there would be no God—" At which point, the time-delayed broadcast cut to a different camera shot and censored the rest of her sentence, which ended, "—damned wars in the first place!" The FOX network, which did not apologize to Field, said it cut her off to comply with indecency regulations.
9
Elocutionary Beauty
Granted, the question itself was a bit appalling: Why are one-fifth of Americans not able to locate the United States on a map? But Miss Teen South Carolina mangled her answer so badly in the Miss Teen U.S.A. beauty pageant that she became the butt of many a late-night-show joke and for days was one of the most-searched-for people on the Internet. "I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because some people out there in our nation don't have maps," her answer began and spiraled downward from there. She later claimed she "completely misunderstood" the question.
10
Family Politics on Facebook
First, Rudy Giuliani's son spoke publicly this spring about his estrangement from his father. Then the Republican presidential candidate got stung again in August when it was reported that his daughter Caroline was part of a Facebook group supporting Democrat Barack Obama's bid for the White House. When Slate.com approached the Harvard freshman about her online profile, she declined to comment and withdrew from the Obama group, which could be interpreted as a sign of civility toward her father — or as a desire to stay out of the spotlight.
[source: https://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/top10/article/0,30583,1686204_1686303_1690463,00.html ]
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