Scarface
May 3rd, 2010, 04:20 PM
In the Hollywood Reporter, Andrew Wallenstein delivered a scathing assessment of O'Brien's interview performance. "Not since another silence-breaking media event -- the Tiger Woods 'press' conference -- has a public figure backfired so thoroughly in his attempt to try to put the best face on a bad situation (and Conan ain't doing as badly as Tiger)," he wrote. He added: "When you sit down with '60 Minutes,' you're not playing to your fan base; you're retelling your story to the kind of viewers who are more interested in world affairs than showbiz. You're talking to an audience that has the kind of perspective O'Brien so clearly lacks."
I'll admit that I'm exactly the choir to whom Conan is preaching. But even so, I feel like Wallenstein and I were watching two completely different interviews.
I came away from O'Brien's appearance thinking that, once again, he managed to take a higher road than anyone else involved in this admittedly petty situation. He acknowledged that he was hurt by what happened with NBC, as anyone who has been loyal to a company for more than a decade, gets the promotion he was promised and then gets tossed aside -- without so much as a courtesy call from either Jay Leno or NBC CEO Jeff Zucker -- would be.
But he didn't strike me as self-absorbed. When he said he was doing fine, he sounded like someone who recognizes he is, relative to most people, pretty fortunate and is trying to move on with his career. And when he laughed and asked Steve Kroft how, exactly, Jay Leno got screwed over in all this, that just sounded like a man asking the same follow-up question that any non-idiot would ask.
The whole Leno vs. O'Brien feud has served as a remarkable teaching moment. O'Brien was kicked to the curb in the most public way imaginable and yet he has shown all of us who wonder what we'd do in a similar situation that it's possible to not only rise above other people's behavior, but even, potentially, to come out on top.
Before last night's "60 Minutes" interview, I thought Conan O'Brien had class. Afterwards, I felt even more sure of that fact.
Here's the video for it (<embed src='http://cnettv.cnet.com/av/video/cbsnews/atlantis2
/player-dest.swf' FlashVars='linkUrl=http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6453980n&releaseURL=http://cnettv.cnet.com/av/video/cbsnews/atlantis2/player-dest.swf&videoId=50087044&partner=news&vert=News&si=254&autoPlayVid=false&name=cbsPlayer&allowScriptAccess=always&wmode=transparent&embedded=y&scale=noscale&rv=n&salign=tl' allowFullScreen='true' width='425' height='324' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' pluginspage='http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer'></embed><br/><a href='http://www.cbsnews.com'>Watch CBS News Videos Online</a>)
Source (http://voices.washingtonpost.com/celebritology/2010/05/did_conan_obrien_take_the_high.html)
I'll admit that I'm exactly the choir to whom Conan is preaching. But even so, I feel like Wallenstein and I were watching two completely different interviews.
I came away from O'Brien's appearance thinking that, once again, he managed to take a higher road than anyone else involved in this admittedly petty situation. He acknowledged that he was hurt by what happened with NBC, as anyone who has been loyal to a company for more than a decade, gets the promotion he was promised and then gets tossed aside -- without so much as a courtesy call from either Jay Leno or NBC CEO Jeff Zucker -- would be.
But he didn't strike me as self-absorbed. When he said he was doing fine, he sounded like someone who recognizes he is, relative to most people, pretty fortunate and is trying to move on with his career. And when he laughed and asked Steve Kroft how, exactly, Jay Leno got screwed over in all this, that just sounded like a man asking the same follow-up question that any non-idiot would ask.
The whole Leno vs. O'Brien feud has served as a remarkable teaching moment. O'Brien was kicked to the curb in the most public way imaginable and yet he has shown all of us who wonder what we'd do in a similar situation that it's possible to not only rise above other people's behavior, but even, potentially, to come out on top.
Before last night's "60 Minutes" interview, I thought Conan O'Brien had class. Afterwards, I felt even more sure of that fact.
Here's the video for it (<embed src='http://cnettv.cnet.com/av/video/cbsnews/atlantis2
/player-dest.swf' FlashVars='linkUrl=http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6453980n&releaseURL=http://cnettv.cnet.com/av/video/cbsnews/atlantis2/player-dest.swf&videoId=50087044&partner=news&vert=News&si=254&autoPlayVid=false&name=cbsPlayer&allowScriptAccess=always&wmode=transparent&embedded=y&scale=noscale&rv=n&salign=tl' allowFullScreen='true' width='425' height='324' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' pluginspage='http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer'></embed><br/><a href='http://www.cbsnews.com'>Watch CBS News Videos Online</a>)
Source (http://voices.washingtonpost.com/celebritology/2010/05/did_conan_obrien_take_the_high.html)