Tina Brown opines about Sunday talking head fests in today’s Washington Post.
“Bono looked very much at home on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday talking about Third World debt. So much so that the future path for Sunday morning talk shows became blindingly obvious: Dispense with politicians altogether. They have passed their sell-by date. They don’t smell so good.
There’s no need anymore for TV news to suffer the ratings death guaranteed by triple-booked administration officials and wearisome, dome-headed “experts.” Sean Penn is already out there as a foreign correspondent. Brad Pitt can be booked as an old Africa hand. Tom Cruise can be tapped for pharmacology updates. It’s the solution Viacom co-president Les Moonves has been looking for as he retools CBS News. If you look hard enough, there’s a celebrity for every issue that someone needs three minutes of talking-headery about.
It wouldn’t take long for an old pro like Clint Eastwood to get himself a backswept hairlift and do a creditable Joe Biden. And there’s a lot to be said for putting Halle Berry in to pinch-hit for Condi Rice and letting the secretary of state get on with playing the piano.
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