Whatever you think about Jon Stewart's Grammy-hosting prowess, he thinks he knows where his strength lies: ignorance.
"The beauty of it is I have no idea who [all the music bigwigs and VIPs] are," Stewart told Grammy.com before donning his emcee hat Wednesday night for the second year running. "So the slightly balding, graying gentleman in the front who's frowning at me and could crush my musical career doesn't affect me as much because I have no music career."
Far from an insider, Stewart says he's not even much of a fan. "I don't think I've even listened to music since [last year's] Grammys," he boasts.
Which is not to say he has no musical experience whatsoever.
"I did something with a Mongolian throat band," he jokes, adding that he's listed in the album credits "under my Mongolian name."
And then there was that "remake of Eddie Murphy's 'Party All the Time,' a capella with just a slight hint of klezmer" that, alas, "hasn't gone anywhere."
But he is able to appreciate the finer points of musical craft.
"Somebody gets out there and throws down 'Chopsticks,' I'm blown away," Stewart says.
Too bad there's not a category for that.
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What, no van Gogh?
"I got an art first name because my father is Ruby Mazur, who did the tongue logo for the Rolling Stones and designed an album cover for David Bowie. He gave artist first names to all my younger siblings, so I guess he thought it was a good idea after calling me Monet. My brother who's 16 is named Matisse, and my twin brothers are called Cezanne and Miro."
-- Monet Mazur, who stars in "40 Days and 40 Nights," on her impressive pedigree and unusual first name, to celebrity researcher Baird Jones at the film's premiere in New York on Tuesday night.
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Juicy bits
Who's sorry now? Aaron Sorkin. The "West Wing" creator has reportedly apologized to Tom Brokaw for telling the New Yorker that he thought the NBC newsman allowed presidential staffers to "pump up" President Bush's schedule before paying the White House a prime-time on-camera visit last month. "Tom Brokaw let it happen -- the show was a valentine to Bush," Sorkin griped. "Aaron and Tom spoke last night. Aaron apologized to Tom," NBC Entertainment president Jeff Zucker told reporters on Tuesday, adding that Brokaw had accepted Sorkin's apology and is prepared to let the slight glance right off him. "As far as Tom is concerned, this is over."
Not sorry: Russell Crowe. In an interview with the Melbourne paper the Age, the Australian actor expressed not a speck of remorse about his confrontation with BAFTA award-show director Malcolm Gerrie. In fact, he's still steamed about Gerrie's decision to trim a poem out of his best actor acceptance speech. "Quite frankly, as the producer of a television awards show that's going to be televised, if you haven't allowed for at least two minutes per speech running towards the end of your show, then you have done a very incompetent job," he says. "He's not bruised, he's not battered, but I'm quite sure his ears are still ringing."
Might be sorry: Jay Leno. The "Tonight Show" host has apparently majorly ticked off the people of South Korea by joking that South Korean skater Kim Dong-Sung, who was disqualified after finishing first in the 1,500-meter race at the Olympics, must have been so upset that he'd gone home and kicked his dog, then eaten it. "What an ignorant son-of-a-bitch he is. He appears to have no consideration for the national feelings of another country," former Prime Minister Kim Jong-Pil said of Leno in an interview with the Korea Herald News. "It is repulsive to talk about another country in such a foul manner. It is not right that such a man without any common decency should host a TV program." In fact, the former P.M. said, Leno was little more than an "ill-mannered ugly guy." On second thought, maybe Leno's not the only one who should apologize ...
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