gayle king

On June 23, 2009, the trademark laugh of the greatest sidekick of all time was silenced as Ed McMahon floated up to the great sidekick couch on the sky. While Publisher's Clearing House commercials and 'Star Search' reruns will never be the same, the good news is that McMahon, who rose up in the wake of some pretty stellar sidekicks himself, set the bar high for those to follow.

Perhaps he set it too high, though, as newcomers to the talk show field like Jimmy Fallon and Craig Ferguson have chosen to fly solo on their talk shows. And that's a shame. Like wine in a box and BBC America series, these straight men of the chat circuit are all too often underappreciated and overshadowed but consistently, inconspicuously deliver the goods.

Bless Oprah Winfrey's soul for all the good work she does in the name of bettering humanity. She gets people to read, she gives poor kids scholarships, she reaches out to victims of environmental disaster, and, of course, there was that time she gave a new car to everyone in her audience. She's a money fairy out to save the world, and we applaud her for it.

But then there are times when Oprah's weird side comes out, when that unique connection she so strongly maintains with her audience - both in the studio and viewers at home - is broken in favor of reminders that, oh yeah, Planet Oprah might not be such a crazy notion. The lady probably uses $100 bills to clean her teeth. And, in case you'd forgotten, she and buddies Gayle King and Tyler Perry will remind you, as they did while palling around on Friday's show, on which Oprah retold a super-nauseating story about Perry giving her the most incredibly unnecessary gift a media mogul could ever not hope for.

It was an historic occasion yesterday last Thursday on NBC's The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, didn't you know? The lady who lives to be banned -- and re-banned in the case of The View -- Kathy Griffin appeared as Jay Leno's guest. What's the big deal?

Well, if you recall the first season of Kathy's show, Bravo's My Life on the D List, the comic was rather brutally insulted by Jay when he called her ugly, and in the subsequent episodes of the show, Kathy revealed that she was put on The Tonight Show's "do not invite list."

And yet, the other night, there was Kathy in the prime seat, chatting it up with Jay, dissing celebrities as is her wont, and generally looking like the D List is now just the title of her show, not her true show business status.

Say it's 11 AM; Opie and Anthony's XM show is over and you're looking for something to listen to. So why don't you turn on the channel that's the perfect follow-up: Oprah and Friends!

Yes, kiddies, Oprah and her cabal have started a satellite radio station. But you might have to concentrate hard to actually hear the big O on the channel; according to this article, she will only be on one 30 minute show per week, dishing with her buddy Gayle King about celebrities and whatnot.

What you will hear are the people whose careers O has propped up through her TV show: King, trainer Bob Greene, financial expert Jean Chatsky (mmm... Jean Chatsky), psychologist Dr. Robin Smith, and Dr. Mehmet Oz. Oh, and Maya Angelou gets a show, too (let's hope little Jimmy Norton does a guest shot in an O/O&A crossover). So, it's just like the Oprah show you love, but longer and more self-important. Enjoy!

In her latest issue of O Magazine, Oprah feels its necessary to explain to people that she and her friend, Gayle King, are not gay. The article is about Oprah and Gayle's close friendship that has lasted 30 years. Oprah writes, "There isn't a definition in our culture for this kind of bond between women. So I get why people have to label it -- how can you be this close without it being sexual?" And Gayle says that, if they were gay, they'd come out publicly.

Wow. I must be living in a bubble. I always thought Oprah held her good friends close to her as she became uber-famous. I never thought of Oprah and Gayle as a couple (not that there's anything wrong with it!). Did anybody else get that vibe?