Posted on 03/24/2005 8:19:13 AM PST by Pharmboy
**Exclusive**
HBO is set to air a behind the scenes look at the launching of liberal radio network AIR AMERICA.
The DRUDGE REPORT has obtained a director's cut of LEFT OF THE DIAL, a grossly entertaining docu-drama of life on the other side of the AIR AMERICA microphone.
The doubts. The lies. The bounced checks. The heartbreak.
The viewer is taken upclose to witness the ugly business of media ambition.
The main character, Evan Cohen, founding chairman and main investor, is depicted as a complete fraud.
The documentary shows Cohen arriving in the middle of night at AIR AMERICA offices to sign over the company and disappear again, but not before lying about how many ads have been sold and how much money is the bank [zero].
Dead Air.
It shows how AIR AMERICA executives lied and lied again about not bouncing checks to their Chicago and Los Angeles affiliate owners. [The stations were quickly thrown off the network.]
The film captures AIR AMERICA staff first learning about the Chicago and LA nightmare by reading a DRUDGE REPORT exclusive on their computers.
It shows midday host Al Franken at a staff meeting being told there is no money left, hilariously, just moments after ranting about George Bush's ethics.
The HBO crew is told to shut down their cameras -- but they don't -- and the 'We're Broke!' meeting is filmed raw.
LEFT OF THE DIAL shows an angry meeting of the writing staff being told how money was deducted from their checks to pay for health care -- but the money was never paid to the HMO and they were never covered!
Host Janeane Garofalo looks suicidal in nearly every scene which she appears.
"What am I going to do, just ramble on and on," panics stand-up-comic-morning-drive-host Marc Maron, as he deals with the reality of becoming a talkshow host.
But every drama must have a hero: Enter Randi Rhodes.
Highlight. The camera captures pm drive Rhodes in her classic PMS mood, but this time at home, in her newly rented NYC apartment.
Wearing a leopard-spotted robe, bra-less, smoking and crying "I'm so f*cking lost," the relocated Floridian steals the show.
Talking to herself in the bedroom mirror, Rhodes whispers "You can do this."
She bemoans throughout how she is not being featured in any AIR AMERICA press. "No CNN. No USATODAY. No YAHOO wire story." How she is the only one hired at AIR AMERICA that's even been on radio before.
When she attempts to introduce herself to director Michael Moore [rushing out of a Franken Radio interview], Rhodes quickly realizes he does not even know who she is.
The heartbreaking scene is easily a frontrunner for this year's EMMYs.
The HBO film is set for air March 31.
Developing...
Sorry but Randi Rhodes is no hero!
Perhaps she comes across the best in contrast to the rest of the lowlifes on the screen.
What is Randi Rhodes's real name?
LOL- is anyone checking the books at ERR Amerika? Last I heard it was illegal to bounce checks.
Don't know. Here's her bio from her radio site:
Randi Rhodes Biography
The smoky-voiced Brooklyn native with the lightening fast wit cracks the mic and legions listen. One of the country's first female entertainment and political talk show hosts, Randi has a passion for people.
Her radio talk shows are legendary in South Florida where she has been the comic relief and the pillar of reality when she gives herself to ideas that people rarely express out loud. Her unflinching candor and self-deprecating approach to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness (whatever), have earned her the respect and loyalty. Her ability to research complex ideas but present them so simply and in an exquisitely entertaining way seems effortless. It seems that Randi's opinion was the one you never knew was yours but now is. She holds Nothing back. Randi?s life is an open book and people tune in to hear the pages turn.
Her radiogenic odyssey started in Seminole, Texas where she was a waitress in a Mexican restaurant to support her radio habit. She made it to New York, Dallas, and Milwaukee before settling in South Florida (WIOD-Miami) and West Palm Beach (WJNO).
Randi was also voted Most Outstanding Woman in the Air Force in 1979 and won the American Women in Radio and Television Ward for Best Entertainment Programming.
Thanks! I believe, however, that that is her "air-name" and not the real one.
I've heard her. She sounds like someone is chasing her around the studio with a knife!
Our Dish system had one of those "free HBO" things a couple of weeks ago and I saw an ad for that Air America "documentary".
The feeling I got from the spot was that it was going to show how AA was like a "rogue band of righteous underdogs" that were going to take on the giants (Rush's) of talk radio and win. The commercial really needed a FR type "Triple Barf Bag" warning. HBO, in general, needs one too.
Ya, whatever.
:(|)
Good one!
Can't believe HBO is really going to broadcast a project critical of liberal media.
Is this on the level?
What is Randi Rhodes's real name?
Eva Braun?
I thought Randy Rhodes died in a plane crash while barnstorming his private plane over Ozzy Osbourne's tour bus. Ozzy dedicated the rest of the tour to the former Quiet Riot (pre-Cum On Feel the Noiz) axeman?
Is this on the level?
Not in the least. It is a film made by Michael Moore's team; the producers of his TV Nation show.
That's what I thought. Thanks.
Thats the trick...they play it that way and then...enter the hero, Randi Rhodes and the big bad old conservatives just melt away and the left wing moonbats save the day....thats how HBO will show it anyway.
"Last I heard it was illegal to bounce checks."
Unless you're in Congress.
That's what I thought. Thanks.
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