In September, “ER’s” George Clooney and his new girlfriend, Celine Balidran, were caught in an intimate moment on paparazzi video obtained and aired by “Hard Copy.” In retaliation, Clooney declared a boycott against “Entertainment Tonight,” insisting that Paramount, the parent company of both shows, violated an agreement that the actor appear regularly on “ET” in exchange for non-coverage of his private life.
Other celebrities, apparently sick and tired of celebrity, joined in the boycott of “ET,” ironically the most softball of TV’s many gossip shows.
Just about everyone has kissed and made up now, though Clooney says he will wait and see if Paramount keeps its word (his new movie, “One Fine Day,” with Michelle Pfeiffer opens next week).
No fewer than eight TV shows now devote all or part of their coverage to Hollywood celebrities. We have “Entertainment Tonight,” “Access Hollywood,” “E! News Daily,” E!’s “The Gossip Show,” CNN’s “Showbiz Today,” “Hard Copy,” “Extra”nd “Inside Edition.” How do you know which ones to watch and which ones to, essentially, boycott?
Ultimately, these gossip shows all share the same bathwater. They cover the same premieres and are beholden to the same small group of powerful publicists. Tabloid programs have the occasional leg up when free-lancers (a k a paparazzi) provide them with “caught in the act” video clips of your favorite stars. But even when the content is essentially the same, each show has its own tone. Here’s a guide.
`Access Hollywood’
6:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, WMAQ-Ch. 5
Format: Movie clip-a-thon plus bonus in-studio interviews and music performances. The show skews young.
Camera angle: More glam cam a la “ET” and some quick-cut MTV-style shots.
Pet star: Sylvester Stallone.
Anchors way: Former Chicago news anchors Larry Mendte and Giselle Fernandez, making the most of her Vanna White school of hand motions, manage not to bump into each other.
Favorite accessory: Y necklace.
Focus on underwear: Antonio Sabato Jr. signs his Calvins in New York appearance.
Redeeming feature: Hour-long concept pieces include TV stars on Broadway and visits to stars’ homes, including revelations that TV movie icon Peter Strauss would rather garden than act.
`E! News Daily’
5:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, E!
Format: Host Steve Kmetko brings a dry, above-it-all attitude to fairly straightforward entertainment news coverage.
Camera angle: Travelogue-style location shots and “file” footage video clips.
Pet stars: Jim Carrey, Kevin Costner, Pamela Lee
Anchors way: So anti-glitz does Kmetko appear to be that he sometimes doesn’t shave.
Favorite accessory: Mock turtleneck or collarless tab shirt with navy blazer.
Focus on underwear: Recent feature covered topless beaches at Cannes featuring Pamela Lee wannabes in various states of undress.
Redeeming feature: Clean, minimalist stage and the best set in the business.
`Entertainment Tonight’
6:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, WBBM-Ch. 2
Format: Happy talk (a feel-good feature on burning-witches-at-the-stake flick “The Crucible”) and spin control (Kelsey Grammer gets to explain his fresh start, for the umpteenth time, on his return from the Betty Ford Center), with the most stories per half-hour.
Camera angle: Glossy, photogenic, to-die-for closeups of superstars. Action-packed movie clips, compliments of the studios. The slo-mo camera here is never sinister but is used to convey sentimentality toward a star.
Pet stars: Loni Anderson (she must be friends with the producer) and singer Natalie Cole.
Anchors way: Mary Hart and Bob Goen deliver their reports with super-glottal inflection–and always a smile–while Julie Moran, Jann Carl and Lisa Canning are from the carnival barker school of reporting.
Favorite accessory: Y necklace.
Focus on underwear: Every scene of any soap star ever done in Speedos and teddies shows up here.
Redeeming feature: Memorable theme song, often hummed in impromptu performance by celebs being interviewed.
`Extra’
4 p.m. Monday through Friday, WMAQ-Ch. 5
Format: Tabloid show in a newsroom-like setting features sensationalistic headlines like “Michael’s Million Dollar Payday” (Jackson does a private concert for the sheik of Brunei) and “Fergie in a Fling” (photos of the duchess with her personal trainer).
Camera angle: For that spy-cam sensibility, still photos are combined with video footage that is not provided by studios.
Pet star: Princess Diana.
Anchors way: Anchors Libby Weaver and Brad Goode take a back seat to cartoon graphics and a saxophone soundtrack.
Favorite accessory: Y necklace.
Focus on underwear: Playboy magazine’s Miss December.
Redeeming feature: Disgruntled people spill the beans (a former “Real World” roommate from MTV’s docudrama about Gen Xers says she was plied with alcohol to loosen her up).
`The Gossip Show’
4 p.m. Monday through Friday, E!
Format: Print journalists are shepherded by fadmistress/sort-of-celeb Julie Brown. “Scoops” are offered round-robin style by columnists such as the New York Daily News’ acerbic A.J. Benzal and Daily Variety’s old-school Army Archerd, which is secondhand gossip, spiced up for the show, received from doctors, bartenders and maitre d’s to the stars.
Camera angle: As gossip is doled out, “file” video clips of celebs at premieres are shown in the Extra-Grainy mode.
Pet stars: Michael Jackson, Pamela Lee.
Anchors way: The British Brown, who does an inimitable brand of shtick from Hollywood restaurants and homes, is as incongruous here as Little Bo Peep in a cocktail dress.
Favorite accessory: Hats; one columnist favors gloves.
Focus on underwear: Brown recently introduced a segment in a black nightgown and pegnoir from bed.
Redeeming feature: Benzal, hair oiled back, is possibly the next Method actor for a Scorsese ripoff flick.
`Hard Copy’
4 p.m. Monday through Friday, WBBM-Ch. 2
Format: Tabloid magazine covers feel-good stories about ordinary people and diet and health breakthroughs as well as celebrities.
Camera angle: Paparazzi-style camera work at its best, from slo-mo to hand-held, to suggest that a shocking expose is about to take place.
Pet stars: JFK Jr. A recent coup includes security camera footage of Kennedy, wife and guests entering a New York building’s lobby.
Anchors way: Terry Murphy and Barry Nolan’s efforts not to smile sometimes make them look scared.
Favorite accessory: Y necklace.
Focus on underwear: Twins in the buff featured in upcoming Playboy video.
Redeeming features: Willing to snip at the stars, often with long-forgotten and hilarious yearbook pictures and bitter revelations by ex-boyfriends/girlfriends, ex-mates, ex-classmate. Case in point: One of Jennifer Aniston’s high school classmates says not only that Aniston stole her boyfriend out of spite, but also that Aniston looks “like she had some alterations done.” Not afraid to take on the super celebs, as when an unauthorized biographer called Sharon Stone “the biggest control freak in Hollywood.”
`Inside Edition’
3 p.m. Monday through Friday, WLS-Ch. 7
Format: Feel-good stories on everyday people and caught-in-the-act coverage of celebs make this the televised equivalent of The Star or The National Enquirer.
Camera angle: From hand-held to slo-mo to a tacky documentary style, everything says “this is the real thing, not Hollywood-provided visuals.”
Pet stars: John-John and Princess Diana.
Anchors way: Although rusty, Deborah Norville’s newsmagazine skills are still evident as she introduces a segment on Princess Di driving around with a married millionaire.
Fashion accessory: Bold gold earrings and necklaces.
Focus on underwear: JFK Jr. in his swimming trunks.
Redeeming feature: Like “Hard Copy,” “Inside Edition” often gets the story that other shows won’t ever go after. For example, it recently aired exclusive audio tape of Princess Diana screaming at paparazzi photogs to leave her alone; the show also obtained exclusive amateur home video of O.J. Simpson’s kids playing at home before the Nicole Brown Simpson-Ron Goldman murders.
`Showbiz Today’
4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, CNN
Format: True to its carrier, CNN, this show most deserves the description “entertainment news” with straight-ahead, industry-oriented news of the day sans sound bites and techno sound effects.
Camera angle: Not above using “file” video footage of celebs and movie clips provided by studios.
Pet star: Equal billing for all, but anyone who knows anchor Jim Moret’s great work for the cable network covering the Simpson trial can rest safe in the knowledge that Moret will cover Simpson if it’s relevant.
Anchors way: Standup stuff from Moret and Laurin Sydney.
Fashion accessory: Moret’s omnipresent clipboard.
Focus on underwear: Ex-employee of Wynonna says the country singer and the singer’s husband offered to measure her butt.
Redeeming feature: With its far above-average, non-sensationalistic copy, no other show but this would include an actual discussion of the 1st Amendment when covering the premiere of Oliver Stone’s new film about pornography publisher Larry Flynt. They also discuss facts and figures such as weekly box office receipts.
