ANNE ROBINSON: AMERICANS ARE DUMB

Mirror UK ^ | 16 May 2002 | Ros Wynne-Jones

[Asmodeus]

ANNE ROBINSON: AMERICANS ARE DUMB

EXCLUSIVE: Quiz Queen says: Only 5% of them have passports and they act as if Dubya's Einstein

By Ros Wynne-Jones

TOUGH: Quiz show dominatrix Anne on the set of the Weakest Link

ANNE Robinson, the flame-haired quiz show dominatrix, is not impressed. The Weakest Link is to be shelved in the United States as a result of declining audience figures and Anne, who has made no secret of her contempt for American intellect, is taking no prisoners.

America, You are the Weakest Link, Goodbye! "On one US show I asked a young soap star how many minutes there were in half an hour," Anne says, wearily. "And she said 60."

Nor is she much impressed by their leader. "I saw George Bush at a benefit concert actually waving at Stevie Wonder," she says, incredulously. "Someone had to tell him 'he can't see you'." Anne wanted to mention the incident on a US chat show but, post- September 11, criticising Dubya was deemed unpatriotic.

"Suddenly, you couldn't say anything about him," she says. "Before September 11, I remember asking on TV if Bush knew where Europe was. Then suddenly, you had to act as if he was Einstein."

Does she think Americans are definitively more stupid than the Brits? "You have to remember that only five per cent of Americans have passports," she says. "That explains a lot..."

Fresh from the startling ratings success of last Saturday's Test The Nation, 57-year-old Anne is on razor-sharp form.

Dressed in her trademark black with her waspish red hair cropped short, she is reclining on a sofa at her Cotswolds home with the air of a Black Widow spider that has just eaten a particularly delicious suitor.

"The athlete Jonathan Edwards, who won the celebrities' test with 126 points, has a physics degree," says Anne, a former Daily Mirror executive. "And he was definitely the right winner because he was the best looking there - the one you would have wanted to sleep with."

COMPETING with the likes of newspaperman Andrew Neil and EastEnders' Ian Beale - Adam Woodyatt - you'd hope so.

"Adam was the most competitive," Anne reveals. "We said we'd only reveal the top three celebrity results, so as not to embarrass anyone. But he was desperately looking for the card with all the results on and was last seen scrabbling around under the podium."

For 30 minutes during the show, unbeknown to Anne, her earpiece link to the directors went dead - without it, most hosts would be reduced to jelly.

"They normally interrupt you all the time, so I thought that if they were quiet it must mean the show was going well. It was only when I saw them gesturing wildly that I knew something was up."

Her face creases with pleasure as she shows the new, cuddly Anne. "I wore pink for Test The Nation," she says, brightly. "It was such a relief. My new softer image."

She takes me up to her wardrobe, to view the outfit. Next to it is a soft beige one, for a forthcoming appearance on the Jonathan Ross show.

The black designer interrogators' outfits for The Weakest Link are at Pinewood Studios. NBC, the US network that makes Weakest Link in America, has also bought up Test The Nation, so a soft pastel wardrobe may soon be required there, too.

"Of course, the real test will be whether Americans can concentrate for an hour," says Anne, lapsing into her old ways. Descended from a long line of North Wales Wynne-Jones, I have to take issue with her over her anti- Welsh comments on BBC2's Room 101.

"All I can say is that we did a Welsh-only Weakest Link and they won the least amount of money ever," Anne retorts.

Fortunately for the Valleys, she has a new target. Last year she upset Americans by declaring that few US citizens knew anywhere outside of Idaho - and she despairs of her Stateside contestants.

"You can always tell Texans," she says. "They wear big, bright, multi- coloured sweaters. Every time I see one, I think God's made another rainbow. Then you get the clean-shaven Right-wing Christian types. The Jews on our team are always laughing at them saying: 'He wouldn't have let us hide in his attic.'"

She does, however, have a kind word for Bill Clinton. "I think he did womankind a great favour. He proved that giving your boss a blow job in the photocopying cupboard is not dating. Nor is it clever. Throughout history, the disappointment of women is that they are attracted to power." Anne confesses that her dream is to run a Clever Women's Group, where she would train young women not to be so bloody silly. What would be on the curriculum?

"Don't sleep with them on the first date - wait till the sixth. And do not ring him. And why do women always fall for irresponsible, unfaithful men?" she asks. "They need to learn to like dull men and treat them properly."

All this seems a bit harsh on John Penrose, Anne's gentle, long- suffering other half, agent and business manager.

"Well, you couldn'thave two of me in this small a space, could you?" Anne says, gesturing across the room towards the spluttering open fire. She has a point.

SHE is truly, madly wonderful... but times two?

A Weakest Link Lookalikes Special, which featured an Anne lookalike among the contestants, terrified the audience.

"I introduced her saying: 'This is your worst nightmare.' Anyway,you have to have someone on crap control."

By that, she means someone like her husband, who'll sit at home and judge the fine line between being a celebrity and an ego-maniac. "Vanessa Feltz could do with one," she says, smiling innocently. "And Esther Rantzen." The key to "crap control" is that Anne is not taken overly seriously in her own household. There is a Weakest Link quiz book next to the toilet.

The carpet is littered with Anne Robinson dolls from a US promotion, chewed up andspat out by her dogs.

When I tread on a doll accidentally, it barks: 'You are the Weakest Link, Goodbye!' As Anne laughs, John whacks another doll's face on the table. Mini- Anne yelps: "You could fill an encyclopaedia with all they do not know!"

He winks. "You can see what we get up to when we're a bit fed up of Annie," he whispers. Returning to the sitting room, I can see that Anne has a red welt on her face and I worry that the doll has voodoo properties. But there is an innocent explanation. She has just been swimming in her heated pool, which features an underwater stereo.

Rather eccentrically, she swims every day in mask and snorkel, which has left the red mark. "The snorkel is wonderful," she says.

"You don't get a neck ache doing breast-stroke. And I can listen to the Today show underwater."

Anne is more than happy to send herself up but agrees she isn't really as tough as her Black Widow exterior, while publishing her warts-and-all autobiography, Memoirs Of An Unfit Mother, last year, laid some demons to rest.

"I had felt that my past was always up for grabs," she says. "I spent years being terrified that someone would find out about the custody battle."

A former alcoholic, Anne lost custody of her daughter Emma in the 70s, through being what the courts called an "unfit mother".

"I spent years being ashamed," she adds. "After writing the book I felt relieved. I've always thought that fear is the worst drug of all. It makes people behave so badly."

Emma, now a New York radio presenter and executive, has chosen not to read the book but is used to seeing her mother's face on billboards.

The two are now firm friends and 30- year-old Emma has just bought her mother an unusual present.

So what do you give a woman who has everything? "A llama," says Anne. "Apparently, I'm now sponsoring one in a developing country."

Anne, who gave up drink and cigarettes years ago, is on a serious high. NBC may have shelved Weakest Link but it will still run there until September. "That's 82 shows - which equals four series of Friends."

Anne has become what US media circles call "a break-out personality". She is in talks over a potential US chat show, Anne Talks Tough. Her autobiography is out in paperback next month. She has even been invited to apply for the post of Rector at St Andrew's University, where she may at last get the chance to advise bright young women.

Outside on the drive, the studio car is waiting to whisk her to Pinewood, where more hapless Weakest Link contestants will be led into the studio like lambs to the slaughter. "What do I want next?" she laughs. "I want to lose six pounds by this evening." Goodbye!

[swarthyguy]

Maybe the US will stop it's mindless worship of anyone with a ohsocute British accent.

[AppyPappy]

Already posted here

[SunStar]

Nor is she much impressed by their leader. "I saw George Bush at a benefit concert actually waving at Stevie Wonder," she says, incredulously. "Someone had to tell him 'he can't see you'." Anne wanted to mention the incident on a US chat show but, post- September 11, criticising Dubya was deemed unpatriotic.

She is a DAMNED LIAR. 'Nuff Said.

From Snopes.com -- http://www.snopes2.com/inboxer/outrage/bushwave.htm

Claim:   Hoping to attract the singer's attention at the March 2002 Presidential Gala, George W. Bush waved at Stevie Wonder.

Status:   False.

Example:   [Collected on the Internet, 2002]

When Stevie Wonder sat down at the keyboard center stage, President Bush in the front row got very excited. He smiled and started waving at Wonder, who understandably did not respond. After a moment Bush realized his mistake and slowly dropped the errant hand back to his lap.

I know I shouldn't have," a witness told us yesterday, "but I started laughing."

Origins:   This story appeared in the pages of The Washington Post in early March 2002. Because it was such a juicy tidbit ("The Prez is such a dolt, he waves at blind folks!"), it was subsequently picked up by numerous talk radio hosts who gleefully fed it to their listeners and reached an even larger audience through the medium of television via Late Night with Conan O'Brien and Saturday Night Live.

Was it true? Well, not really. Although Stevie Wonder did perform at the 3 March 2002 Presidential Gala held at the Ford Theatre in Washington where President Bush was in attendance, the "wave" was both far less that initially made out to be and appears to have been directed at someone else.

After running the item as true and being challenged upon it by the Ford's Theatre Artistic Director, who was seated by the President that night and didn't at all recall this incident, Washington Post writer Lloyd Grove delved further into the story. Editors working on turning film of that event into a television special (which is scheduled to air April 12) went frame by frame through the video captured by the "presidential isocam" (as the camera trained on Bush is called). At the point where Wonder was getting settled behind his keyboard, Bush briefly raised his palm and smiled. The gesture was not the excited, enthused wave it is now comically portrayed to be; it was a small motion of the sort one routinely makes to an acquaintance across a crowded room. Moreover, the motion appears to have been directed at Kelsey Grammer, the emcee of the evening.

Stories that showcase blockheadedness stick to George W. Bush like feathers to a tar-coated chicken because they seemingly confirm what much of the public already holds as true about this public figure, that he's not the brightest fellow that's ever been. It is human nature to revel in yarns that the hearer at some level agrees with, thus tales of this sort will always fall upon appreciative ears. Witness the excitment with which the false story about presidential I.Q., as Bush's ranking upon this list was greeted as another example of this phenomenon in action.

And yet, even if the story had been true, even if President Bush had waved at a blind man, hard-up comics might have seen that as fodder for their "Bush is so dumb!" routines, but most folks would have seen such a gaffe as something that can -- and does -- happen to anyone.

[TopQuark]

"I saw George Bush at a benefit concert actually waving at Stevie Wonder," she says, incredulously. "Someone had to tell him 'he can't see you'."

Well, if she were smart, she would realize that this was a sign of respect on the part of George Bush --- to act as if Stevie Wonder could see, ignoring his handicap, much like one does not patronizingly address a person in a wheelchair. The President knew full well that someone at the table, perhaps the person who escorted him there, would say to Stevie, "The President is waiving to you," and Stevie would waive back.

This is what makes us different from Europeans and this is what they cannot understand even when they see it: being nice to each other.

[martin_fierro]

Does she think Americans are definitively more stupid than the Brits? "You have to remember that only five per cent of Americans have passports," she says. "That explains a lot..."

As Ms. Robinson is undoubtedly a member of Mensa, maybe some FReeper can explain this non-sequitur to dumb ol' me.

[ericthecurdog]

Here's a headline for you:

ERIC SMITH: ANNE ROBINSON IS A FRUMPY HAS-BEEN

[SunStar]

Well, if she were smart, she would realize that this was a sign of respect on the part of George Bush --- to act as if Stevie Wonder could see, ignoring his handicap, much like one does not patronizingly address a person in a wheelchair.

While you would be correct if this were true, you do not need to defend Bush on this one. It is completely made-up.

[Mr. Bird]

Does she think Americans are definitively more stupid than the Brits? "You have to remember that only five per cent of Americans have passports," she says. "That explains a lot..."

It does? One could argue that the in today's "information age", the need for a passport to satisfy "intellectual curiosity" is smaller than ever. I might add that one could spend dozens of years basking in the tremendous historical, geological, environmental, and human delights found right here in the good ol' USA.

But if she really wants to address the issue, maybe she should take a look in the US Patent Office and compare it to its counterpart in GB....

[PLOM...NOT!]

When you peel back the facade, liberals sure are ugly. They think ugly, they talk ugly, they act ugly.

[Sally II]

I know that a lot of Brit have passports, because I have never been to a country that was not swarming with obnoxious, and for the most part heavily intoxicated Brits. Sure even those Brits who live on the dole back at home do a lot of world travel, and the impressions they leave on foreign countries is never pretty. Suck on that fact, Anne!

[Intolerant in NJ]

America, You are the Weakest Link...We're smart enough to avoid your show and knock it off the air, Annie......

[Henchster]

Does she think Americans are definitively more stupid than the Brits? "You have to remember that only five per cent of Americans have passports," she says. "That explains a lot..."

Yep, it says that Brits are forced to cross the channal and deal with Eurotrash any time they want to see the Sun for a few days, whereas we, in this great country, need only travel to another State to get a vastly varying array of climates and lifestyles, who all speak our language (ah, well, sort of!) and take our currency.

Goodbye Ms. Robinson, YOU are the weakest link!

[Still Thinking]

When you peel back the facade, liberals sure are ugly. They think ugly, they talk ugly, they act ugly.

And in her case...well, I guess I don't have to go there!

[sibb1213]

And their jealousy just stands out too doesn't it. They all hate us because they wish they had what we have. Send the bitch back!

[NorthernRight]

"You have to remember that only five per cent of Americans have passports," she says. "That explains a lot..."

This statement reflects Anne's ignorance of North American norms in ID documentation.

Neither the US nor Canada require a passport as official civil identification. As well, a passport is required by all Europeans and British citizens if they wish to travel throughout each others countries. In North America a passport is not required to travel between the US and Canada.

I assume Anne's complaint reflects her perception that Americans don't often travel. Well, with Europe's attitude toward Americans, why would they want to travel there anyway?

Anne is a typical pompous liberal elitist. She is the weakest link; goodbye!

[Alberta's Child]

Hoping to attract the singer's attention at the March 2002 Presidential Gala, George W. Bush waved at Stevie Wonder.

In a related story, Stevie Wonder was understandably upset when George W. Bush won the election in 2000. Democratic candidate Al Gore, in an attempt to include as many disabled minorities on his staff as possible, had promised to hire Wonder as his limousine driver.

[ricer1]

All our stupidity are belong to us.

[dead]

Well, a woman who abandoned her daughter to become a drunk whore has called me dumb.

My day will continue as normal.

[dead]

In North America a passport is not required to travel between the US and Canada

Or Mexico.