Vanilla Perino: As*, As*, Baby?

Or, a**hole, Ed Henry? Today, Five co-anchor Dana Perino and chief White House correspondent Ed Henry celebrated “good times.” Apparently, during the Real Story with Gretchen Carlson (featuring Dana), Ed revealed, “She [Dana] called me an equal opportunity blank–I won’t use the word, I think it starts with an ‘a,’ and it’s not a very nice word.”

Poor Ed should not feel too bad about Dana’s acerbic aspersion. He is in good company: Wannabe rapper “Tiny D” called her co-host and bud Greg Gutfeld an a**hole during a break on The Five about two years ago according to Five co-anchor Bob Beckel. On the other hand, the self-professed “biggest fan” of Bush 43, may have been having a flashback to the day that W infamously called that pesky, impertinent NYT reporter an “a**hole.”

Ed: an a**hole? Probably not–unless he gets on Dana’s bad side!

Hemmer: Carlson’s “Fun” Parties

“Mom says, ‘Don’t tell me that stuff, Gretchen. I don’t want to know!” Gretchen Carlson, host of The Real Story shared the scoop on her wild ways with American Newsroom Bill Hemmer in their early days. FNC fun: Beefcake Bill and Carlson Cheesecake!

In a new segment entitled “My Friends at Fox,” Gretchen brought out Bill for its inaugural debut with the seeming double entendre hashtag #WHATSYOURBEEF. After posing political queries to Bill, Gretch concluded the interview, saying, “As part of my ‘Friends at Fox,’ we’re also interested in our guests giving us just one more thing, maybe, something that people don’t know about you!”*

Raising his eyebrows and chuckling, Bill sheepishly exclaimed, “Now!”

Giggling, Gretchen replied, “Now, Hemmer…I’ve known you for a long time. I know that you left your job and traveled the world for a year: you’ve been to sixty countries. I know that you love golf–I know a lot more about you!”

After some additional idle chatter, Gretchen concluded their segment together [FNI vid], saying, “Well, time for my take now. Today we kicked off My Friends at Fox is because one of the best things about working in the TV business is what a small world it actually and how you keep running into the same people you’ve worked with before in another life. Well, that happened right here at this office a couple times.”

As a throwback pic of the happy duo embracing appeared onscreen [FNI pics (w/i vid)], Gretchen remarked, “Take a look at these gems! Yep, this is Bill Hemmer and Gretchen Carlson from the early days in our careers.” As Bill jested, “PhotoShop!,” yet another pic of the two happily together appeared: Giggling, Gretchen continued,”The late ’90’s when we were both still in our very young twenties, hanging out and working together at WCPO in Cincinnati. We had a lot of fun, right, Bill!”

Seemingly, starting to remember those times together anew, Bill suggestively responded, “Ah, hnh!”

Innocently, Gretchen intoned, “But, the best thing is that we’ve remained friends all these years….Bill and I both shared the same dream, to work hard and [to] see where we ended up. And, as fate would have it, we both ended up here at the Fox News Channel…Hemmer, truly one of my friends at Fox!”

Apparently, not quite ready for the conversation to end on that note, Bill chimed in, “Thank you, Gretchen. The parties you threw back in day!” As Gretchen try to shush him, Bill laughed, “Do your parents have any idea!”

Gretchen replied, “They do actually.” As Bill arched his eyebrows incredibly,  Gretchen saucily answered, “My mom says, ‘Don’t tell me that stuff, Gretchen: I don’t want to know!’ We had some fun, Hemmer!”

Real Story Throwback Thursday: Hemmer time–with Gretchen!

*The Real Story with Gretchen Carlson – 02/19/15 (@ 2:45 p.m. ET).

 

Aly New ND Anchor: “Thrilled!”

Camerota finally gets her weekday morning gig! CNN anchor Alisyn Camerota confirmed today that she is replacing Kate Bolduan as New Day co-host with Chris Cuomo. Tweeting a link to the Wrap report of the ND shakeup, Aly exclaimed, “Thrilled!” And, so are Aly’s fans.

As Aly’s acolytes remember well, Fox & Friends Weekend‘s savior and three-time co-anchor and frequent Fox & Friends fill-in was inanely overlooked when F&F co-host Gretchen Carlson left F&F weekday for her own show The Real Story, and Aly lost the coveted job to then FNC outsider, Elisabeth Hasselbeck. Soon after this strange snub by FNC SVP of Programming Bill Shine, FTVLive rightly reported that Aly was headed to CNN. When she did indeed, she debuted on CNN Tonight as a co-host with Don Lemon in a her usual sure-footed fashion yet as an awkward counterpart to Don.

Almost six months later to the very day, Aly will reportedly make her official debut in the morn as the new ivory queen of New Day. (Her ebony counterpart will be Michaela Pereira who was promoted to ND co-host with Aly and Chris according to the Wrap.)

Hopefully, Aly will be encouraged to show her lighter side in the CNN morn in a way that her former F&FW co-anchor and CNN precursor, comely Kiran Chetry, was never allowed to do fully, unfortunately (as co-host of CNN’s erstwhile American Morning): If CNN ever really wants to compete with the Fox & Friends juggernaut, it must abandon its too oft aloof, elitist approach to the news and extend a more welcoming, personal touch to its audience.

Congratulations, Aly! You deserve your new role as New Day co-host: It’s FNC’s loss and CNN’s gain. Game on!

[Author’s aside: According to the Wrap, Kate will co-anchor This Hour with John Berman at 11:00 a.m. ET. Confirming the change, Kate Tweeted, “End of this month. New Time slot. Hope you can join us at 11a.]

Heather: Happening Now Happily

Tony Snow: “God made you beautiful: Now you’ve got to make yourself smart.” Quirky Fox & Friends newsreader Heather Nauert seems to have found a more fitting slot of late on FNC as guest co-host of Happening Now.  Paired with HN regular co-anchor Jon Scott oft now that Jenna Lee is on maternity leave, the “Chicago” chirper excels in her new chair as a sharp counterpart to FNC’s whilom Shakespearean actor/go-to aviation “expert” Jon: Consequently, fans of F&F are treated to a more mellifluous Carolinian cadence in the early morn as F&F First co-hosts Heather Childers and Ainsley Earhardt often fill in for Heather N. as headline news anchor.

F&F fans can now enjoy their show more as the Southern belle beauties ameliorate their Yankee (Rhode Island) colleague Elisabeth Hasselbeck‘s too oft nasal sounds with their delightful drawl. To boot, the viewers are not subjected to a pedantic Ms. Romper Room Nauert who too oft wants to “tell you about this” before she actually does.

Yes, the “younger sister of another Heather (Locklear)” is beautiful, and she is smart. But, she can be pedantic and irritating a la erstwhile F&F anchor Gretchen Carlson when she talks down to her audience who generally know as much or more than she does. Like the former Miss America [vid] with her new show (The Real Story with Gretchen Carlson), Heather now seems to be more relaxed and at ease on HN–not feeling as if she has to prove her smarts to her audience vis-a-vis the boys, F&F co-anchors Brian Kilmeade and Steve Doocy.

Heather Happening Now: beautiful, smart–and, finally, starting to chill.

[Author’s aside: The subtitle, supra, is based on a Tony Snow quote cited in a Paul Farhi article in the Washington Post.]

New(s) Starts Monday

Sambolin and Berman; Camerota & Hemmer; and solo Carlson. Early Start gets even earlier as Zoraida Sambolin and John Berman‘s show starts 4:00 a.m. ET as it expands to two hours Monday (September 30).* Also, America’s News HQ gains a new hour slot at 1:00 p.m. ET with the end of Megyn Kelly‘s America Live: The abdicating queen of Fox & Friends Weekend Alisyn Camerota and her single “sidekick” Bill Hemmer host. Furthermore, the former diva of the weekday curvy couch debuts on her eponymous new show The Real Story with Gretchen Carlson at 2 p.m. ET.

[Author’s aside: FIVE hours of CNN morning news dawn; Aly AND Gretch rule Megyn’s former throne; and Bill FINALLY gets the girl.]

*Early Start – 09/27/13 (5:09 a.m. ET)