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Jennings acknowledges … ‘Housewives’ embarrass
At the end of Tuesday’s edition of “World News Tonight,” Peter Jennings said what everybody had known all day — he has lung cancer.
The first-person testimonial was inevitable. How could the longtime ABC anchor not say anything, after his condition had been discussed all day on cable news?
But if Jennings’ statement was intended to make the news more palatable, it didn’t. His voice was raspy to the point of being unintelligible at times. He smiled but sounded awful.
Jennings was scheduled to anchor the newscast, but a cold that set in over the weekend robbed him of his voice. Presumably he won’t sound that way the next time we hear him.
And, according to ABC News, we will hear him again. Jennings plans to continue anchoring, as much as possible, throughout his chemotherapy treatments, which begin next week.
With other veterans of network news gone or going — from Tom Brokaw to Dan Rather to Ted Koppel — Jennings’ is not a voice we want silenced. A calm, intelligent presence in the sometimes hysterical world of TV news, the 66-year-old anchor has brought civility and sophistication to the job.
As for the handful of readers who have called or sent e-mails here saying Jennings, a smoker who quit 20 years ago and then relapsed during 9-11, got what he deserved, please keep your mean thoughts to yourself.
And speaking of unpleasantness …
The ego explosion that allegedly accompanied the Vanity Fair photo shoot with the stars of “Desperate Housewives” is an embarrassment.
Don’t these glamorous actors know that such behavior plays right into negative stereotypes about Hollywood women?
The May cover of Vanity Fair shrieks: “You wouldn’t believe what it took just to get this photo!”
If we are to believe the magazine, the five women in bathing suits jockeyed for center position, bright colors and “creative control.”
What a bunch of nitwits. This is a talented group of actors, but they weren’t exactly hot commodities before they landed their “Desperate Housewives” gigs. Teri Hatcher has said she was having trouble making her mortgage payment.
The others - Nicolette Sheridan, Eva Longoria, Marcia Cross and Felicity Huffman — had reached the point in their careers when they could wander through Target without being recognized by anybody.
Now they’re acting like Queens of TV. Which, at the moment, they are but won’t be for long, if they keep this stuff up.
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