(MedicMike donated this funny and true article)
It is called Inside the Actors Studio (search). It airs on the Bravo network (search) and is like no other program I have ever seen in its veneration of celebrity. Entertainment Tonight (search) and Access Hollywood (search) merely make heroes of entertainers. Inside the Actors Studio turns them into gods. It is the official televised church service of the American secular faith, and to tune into an episode is to long for the sound of chalk scratching a blackboard so that there may be some relief from the liturgy.
But if Inside the Actors Studio is not the worst television show in the world, it was responsible, a few weeks ago, for the most repellant statement that I have ever heard in support of the perverse values of the celebrity culture.
The interviewee was Tom Hanks (search). As the program wound to a close, and I threw away the nub of yet another piece of chalk, Lipton turned to the camera and uttered the following: ?I?d like to say a final word to our 240 masters degree candidates here at the New School University. Tonight, you have been privileged to spend a night with Tom Hanks. (Lipton wags his finger at the students.) In the years ahead… earn this!?
At this point, I put the chalk in my mouth and took a bite.
It is one thing to suck up to a celebrity. It is another to be told that it is a privilege to do the sucking. It is yet another to admonished that one must work hard in the years ahead to be worthy of that privilege.
This is not to criticize Tom Hanks. I think he is a fine actor.From what I read, he is also a kind and civil and perceptive human being. So much so, in fact, that I would like to think he was at least a little embarrassed by Lipton?s fawning, obsequious, tongue-abrading performance.
