Dr. Conrad Murray, the man serving a prison sentence for his role in Michael Jackson’s death, has left a bizarre message for Paris Jackson. In the wake of Paris’ suicide attempt yesterday, Murray apparently found a pay phone and left what he describes as a “letter” for the troubled 15-year old. “I don’t know if there’s anything to do to solve your pain,” he says in the message, quoting multiple verses from old MJ songs and adding: “I’m here for you.” The disgraced physician adds Paris consoled him “in [her] deepest moments of grief.” Listen to the voicemail in full here: Conrad Murray Letter to Paris Jackson Paris Jackson is resting in the hospital at the moment. She reportedly used a cleaver on her arm early Wednesday morning and a family insider attributes the tragedy to long-term depression stemming from her father’s death.
An unidentified man pulled out a knife and sliced himself open this morning in Rockefeller Center. The incident took place around 7:50 during Today ‘s live broadcast, though NBC did not catch it on camera. A few minutes later, Matt Lauer updated viewers on what took place. “There was an incident a short time ago,” he said. “A man attempted to harm himself with a knife. He did manage to cut himself. He was controlled by our security team out there. However, he did harm himself, and he is being attended to by medical personnel. So, we’re keeping the area clear for law enforcement.” The co-anchor added that the man “did say something about not wanting to harm others.” In that regard, he was successful: no bystanders were injured. Witnesses tell The New York Daily News , meanwhile, that the individual ranted about how the Internal Revenue Service is corrupt and “ruined his life.” He then pulled out a pocket knife and announced he was going to cut himself. But an onlooker actually wrestled it away from the man… only for him to produce another and successfully inflict a self-wound. Lauer later took to Twitter with an update, writing, “All secure on the plaza after a scary incident. Thanks to our security team and the NYPD.”
With Matt Lauer facing unending criticism, and the decision to sloppily fire Ann Curry still reverberating around NBC, Today has lost its stranglehold in the ratings game. Led by George Stephanopoulos and a returning Robin Roberts , Good Morning America is on top for the first time on ages, while Charlie Rose, Gayle King and Norah O’Donnell are pretty much just hanging out at CBS. With these programs not just reporting the news, but actually making a lot of it themselves these days, it’s time to take the pulse of our readers: Which is your favorite morning show? Today Good Morning America CBS This Morning View Poll »
We actually have Today Show news that does not involve the possible firing of Matt Lauer. But we really, really, really wish that were not the case. On the fourth, wine-induced hour of this NBC morning program Friday, Kathie Lee Gifford went off on “vajazzling” and the steps many women take to groom themselves… down there. We’ve been around for billions of years , the co-anchor argued, asking sarcastically: What did men and women possibly do for so long before the evolution of personal, private part care? And that’s about when Hoda Kotb was forced to make a confession: She – EWWWW! – has a “landing strip.” Hoda Kotb “Landing Strip” Admission
Olivia Wilde is featured in the April issue of Marie Claire . Looking gorgeous as usual, the actress opens up to the magazine on a wide range of personal issues, from marrying Jason Sudeikis to becoming a mother. But first, some beautiful Olivia Wilde photos from the article: What drew her to Sudeikis? “I was just learning to be by myself. We were both seeing people but were single. He seemed to really see me, see through the bullshit. He said very few words and couldn’t keep eye contact. He was so handsome, and he could dance.” Why did she divorce Tao Ruspoli? “I had grown up with Tao; we had just drifted. I felt I had something to prove. If you fall off a horse, you get back up. I am not a quitter. I hung on for as long as possible, until it was more hurtful to stay…I’m so grateful for the pain and the heartbreak. It gave me the courage to leave and brought me to the great love of my life.” On motherhood: “I can’t wait for children. I’m open-minded about how many, but three, which I love, is like a little party. I am not trying to have kids now – there’s no strict plan for anything in my life. What happens, happens. He’s so good with kids…I’ve never before experienced looking at someone and thinking, That’s who I want to raise a child with.”
It’s been a very tough year for Matt Lauer. The Today Show host has come under extreme fire for how he and NBC fired Ann Curry , while his program has sank to second in the ratings behind Good Morning America . Speaking to The Daily Beast about the departure of his ex-colleague, Lauer admits it didn’t exactly go smoothly. “I don’t think the show and the network handled the transition well,” says Lauer . “You don’t have to be Einstein to know that. It clearly did not help us. We were seen as a family, and we didn’t handle a family matter well.” Today is still struggling to recover, as Lauer says the series has been “kicked around a lot” but a lot of the damage has been “self-inflicted.” Having been the top-rated morning program for 16 years, Today now draws nearly one million fewer households than Good Morning America on a daily basis. What has led to this reversal? “We want people to feel good about a portion of their morning and we got away from that,” Lauer said, adding that much of the darkness is gone, by design.” Lauer concludes, however, that he’s the “luckiest guy I know” and he hopes to use the ratings decline as motivation: “Who’s going to feel sorry for me? Nobody. In some ways being number-two in the ratings is a real shot in the arm, a kick in the pants. It makes you hungrier – I don’t think it’s a bad thing to have a fire lit under your ass.”
Bobby Brown finally breaks his silence since the death of Whitney Houston. In an exclusive interview with The Today Show’s, Matt Lauer, Brown admits to…
For the past eight months, Serena Williams has been fighting to get her body back on the right track. She spoke with the Today Show via satellite to give an update on what exactly she has been dealing with and also speaks on her return to tennis: She recalled that on Feb. 18, “I had a lot of swelling in my leg, which really is a tell-tale sign of an embolism, and I could not breathe.” She just thought she “wasn’t fit,” but went to the emergency room. Doctors at first,couldn’t find anything, she said. But then one ordered a CAT scan of her lungs. “That’s when they found several blood clots. They told me they had to check me in immediately or it wasn’t going to be a good result.” A week later, she walked the red carpets at Oscar parties. “I had been through so much. I really was kind of low on energy,” she said, but wanted to “do something to get my spirits up. I wasn’t doing so well mentally. … I was feeling terrible.” So she went out. And wound up in the hospital the next day, Feb. 28, because of a large hematoma in her stomach. A hematoma is a gathering of blood underneath the skin, Lauer explained. “I’m on blood thinner injections. I inject myself twice a day,” she said. “I apparently must have hit something, … so what started out as a golf ball ended up being the size of a grapefruit.” At the hospital she was told it couldn’t be drained; it had to be surgically removed. Did this all stem from her initial foot problem after stepping on glass last year? She said, “Yes, and not moving and doing as much as I normally do and flying back and forth a lot.” What are doctors telling her now? “I’m just taking it one day at a time. My lungs are fairly healthy and I’m on the road to recovering.” She said she’s still hoping to return to tennis this summer. “I want to come back and be able to do well.” A speedy but mostly a healthy recovery is what we wish for Serena Williams.
