Huddy Explains Her O’Reilly Absence

“I scared him.” Apparently, Fox 5 Good Day NY anchor Juliet Huddy‘s “hell” has frozen over. Less than four months after she was given a new segment entitled “Mad as Hell” on the O’Reilly Factor by its eponymous host Bill O’Reilly, Juliet explained why she is not on the Factor any more. When a fan asked her that very question (January 29), she Tweeted, “I scared him. :-)”

As Carpe Diem readers may well remember, Juliet was initially featured in O’Reilly’s Wednesday weekly “Did You See That?” After Heather Nauert replaced her on October 3 (2013) in that segment, Juliet was given a new weekly Thursday one, “Mad as Hell,” the very next day (Thursday): And, the following day (Friday), O’Reilly read a letter from one of Juliet’s fans saying, “Mr. O, if you discontinue the ‘Mad as Hell’ segment, I will be mad as hell.” Perhaps, tellingly, O’Reilly answered, “Alright, we’re gonna keep it…at least, for the time being.”

Subsequently, the author noted O’Reilly’s peculiar response: In his Carpe Diem‘s “Huddy’s ‘Hell’: To Freeze Over?,” the author remarked, “In [Roger] Ailes’ world…that ‘time being’ [can be] rather tenous–at best.” Unfortunately, for Juliet, that observation appears all too apt.

Juliet Huddy Finally Finds Her Mr. Wright

Brother John John: “My sis Juliet and her fiance Steve.” Former Fox & Friends Weekend co-host Juliet Huddy returned to the curvy couch this weekend with a little something extra special–her new engagement ring, apparently. After striking out thrice, FNC’s pulchritudinous player is pluckishly back at bat again: But, strangely, Juliet (and her her co-hosts, Tucker Carlson and Clayton Morris) never revealed her secret to her fans on either F&FW show. Happily, her brother John Huddy (and Fox 5 NY colleague) did–nine days ago: He Tweeted the connubial news and a pic of Juliet’s betrothed, saying, “My sis and her fiance Steve.”

Even though  Juliet has not announced the news to her own Twitter followers, she has left copious hints. On September 13, she Tweeted, “Happy Bday to my love @SWrightNYC. i hope you have an amazing day!!!” A few weeks later, she took a two-week European vacation with him, Tweeting copious pics of herself [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8] and two of her beloved, one of him in front of Westminister Abbey and another of him and her (posing menacingly as a message to a pickpocket who stole her camera). Subsequently, on October 28, Juliet Tweeted out a pic of her and her anonymous ” great friends out watching the Mizzou game” (including her man right beside her).

Congratulations, Juliet, on finding Mr. Right–er, Wright!

Fox & Friends First Turns One: Growing Pains?

Co-host Ainsley Earhardt: “The four of us.”* F&FF‘s Big Love to less love? On March 5, 2013, Ainsley and her co-anchor Heather Nauert marked their first anniversary on the new Fox & Friends First with a much smaller family of co-hosts and a wiser (or, perhaps, more wizened) version of its younger self. Of the earlier stable of beauties (Anna Kooiman, Ainsley Earhardt, Juliet Huddy, Patti Ann Browne, Arthel Neville, Heather Childers, Heather Nauert, Julie Banderas, and Jamie Colby) and two beasts (Dave Briggs and Clayton Morris), only Ainsley, the two Heathers, and PAB survived the year. As to the show itself, it seems to be still evolving.

When F&FF made its debut [vid1], it proudly featured its “twin” sexy South Carolina sirens, Ainsley and Anna, who more than made good on their saucy promise to rouse their viewers with a “shot of expresso” [vid2].”  Bringing “SexyBack” a la the original F&FF [vid3] in the ’00’s (with Kiran Chetry, Alisyn Camerota, and Juliet Huddy), Anna and Ainsley saucily showcased their sexy stems in short dresses for their fervid fans as F&FF cameras took obligingly lingering shots. Subsequently, after two femme editors (1, 2) mocked the morning gamfest, they returned the very next day to a new set which hid their gorgeous gams behind a huge table: However, after the author derided them for “Losing Sexy Fast” and “Happening Not!,” F&FF switched course again and ditched the daffy desk.

Approximately, four months later, F&FF‘s website signaled that other changes were on the way when it provided only the bios of the current F&FF co-hosts, Ainsley, the two Heathers, and PAB. Subsequently, Juliet moved on to become a Fox 5 Good Day NY co-host; Arthel to her weekends as America’s News Headquarters co-anchor; Jamie Colby to her weekends also to America’s News HQ; and Clayton to his F&FW spot (and F&F guest co-host); and Dave ultimately to NBC Sports (with Michelle D. Beadle).

Re the programming itself, F&FF has ditched the split-screen opening with shots of the lovelies preparing for their show juxtaposed to the opining of Bill O’Reilly to conclude the Factor: in its place, F&FF producers run a modern-day version of American television viewers beginning their day to the national anthem and Old Glory waving in the wind before the programming begins. Mid-show, the gorgeous gals stretch their gams and stand rather than flaunt their legs and sit to proclaim the five important stories of the next half-hour. Furthermore, the “B Team” beauties no longer end their show with a segue to the F&F “A Team”: Rather, they bid their viewers adieu in lieu of risking another uncomfortable toss (“F&F Cat Spat: Gretch ‘Slimes’ the Two Heathers”).

Growing pains? Over the year, F&FF has pared its “perfect ten” to a “final four.” A winning team for the future?

[Author’s aside (re the subtitle): When Heather Nauert concluded F&FF‘s anniversary show, saying, “It’s always a great time together,” Ainsley answered, “The four of us.”]

Clayton Morris: “NY’s Funniest Reporter”?

F&FW’s “Rodney Dangerfield”: Really can’t believe I won.  Fox & Friends Weekend co-anchor  Clayton Morris was crowned “New York’s Funniest Reporter”at the Comedy Strip Live Comedy Club on last Thursday night (September 27). bested his FOX fellows, Dr. Manny Alvarez (FNC) and Greg Kelly (Fox 5) and the foxy femmes, Lauren Lyster (RRTV), Michele Steele (ESPN); and Marianne Garvey (In Touch Weekly). After winning the laurel and proudly hoisting his trophy, Clayton Tweeted, “Really can’t believe I won.” Critiquing his routine, he joked, “I was like Rodney Dangerfield up there.*

Apparently, Clayton’s needed “pre-show cocktail” at Toloache 82 was just what the doctor ordered. Congratulations, Clayton!

H/t, J$P.

*Fox & Friends Weekend – 09/29/12 (@7:01 a.m. ET)

Update: In the After the Show Show Saturday, Clayton discussed his comedic approach with Dave and Aly. According to a review by the New York Comedy World, Clayton “did his homework and really came off as a stand-up.”

F&F First’s Nauert: Heather Who?

The late Tony Snow knew: “God made you [Heather] beautiful. Now you’ve got to make yourself smart.” Leggy lovely Fox & Friends First co-host Heather Nauert lit up the screen all week as she delivered the news much too early in the morn. As FNC viewers watched the tow-headed delight make her mark in the morn, they could be forgiven for asking, “Heather who?”

Before providing his particular answer,  Los Angeles Times columnist Paul Farhi posed a similar question albeit almost twelve years ago, asking, “Who the heck is Heather Nauert?” In a column entitled, “The Voice of Experience? Um, Not Exactly,” Farhi likened the then regular FNC contributor to the “younger sister of another Heather (Locklear), almost snidely noting that she shared Regis Philbin’s William Morris agent (while unsuccessfully reading for a Robert De Niro cine part) and was the “first to admit that she didn’t work her way up the journalist rungs. Even though Farhi seemed snarky initially, he rather fairly followed Heather’s journalist journey from an aspiring sixteen-year-old “Chicago-area [Rockford] scion” to FNC’s Senior VP of Programming Bill Shine’s hire in 2001.

Filling in the facts for his readers, Fahri related that Heather matriculated into Arizona State University in 1992; interned at WB as a country music veejay on “Young Country”; and graduated from Mount Vernon College. Further, he shared that she snared a position on NET “Youngbloods,” a parochial political polemics program (for “twentysomething conservatives and liberals). Then, when the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal occurred, Fahri recorded that Heather like other purported “pundettes” such as Ann Coulter, Laura Ingraham, etc. hit the proverbial pay dirt. Not necessarily admitting as such, Shine said, “When I first saw her, I thought Heather was our demographic, that she could bring in younger people.”

Poignantly, Farhi included the sage advice of the revered and deceased Tony Snow, former  “Fox News Sunday” anchor and whilom Bush 43 White House Press Secretary, to Heather.  Snow wisely cautioned, “God made you beautiful. Now, you’ve got to make yourself smart….TV can be a blond wasteland.” (Following his perspicacious counsel, seemingly, Heather now sports “her masters in journalism from Columbia University.”)

Subsequently, Heather did leave FNC  in  2005 for a few years: In June of that year, she went to ABC as an Los Angeles based correspondent, reporting for Good Morning America, World News Tonight, and Nightline. However, she returned to the Fox fold in February 2007 as co-anchor of “Big Story with John Gibson & Heather Nauert and later joined FOX 5 as “Good Day Wake Up” co-host (2009). Heather is still a FOX 5 morning anchor: however, she now also serves as co-host on the brand new, highly rated Fox & Friends First as co-host.

With regard to Heather personally, she and her hubby Scott Norby live in a beautiful Page-Six-Magazine-featured Glen-Cove-area home (or, at least, as of 2007). The couple have two sons, two-year-old Peter Raymond (baby1 vid) and fifteen-month-old Gage William (baby2 vid). They also have three dogs, German shepherds.

Heather who? A beauty, yes, but also, a brainy one, Tony. And, a sexy maternal addition to Fox & Friends–First.