Sarah Palin meets LL Cool J in the past

This had the air of something that might have been an April Fool, but it appears to be genuine - rather than actually interview people for her Fox News Show, Sarah Palin is merely lobbing in old versions of other people's interviews.

Not in a Wogan Now And Then way. Simply using old stuff, and pretending it's new.

Toby Keith's in it, for example:

Elaine Schock, his publicist, said a radio reporter contacted her seeking details about the programme.

"I said, 'You're wrong. There is no Sarah Palin special with Toby Keith on it on Fox,"' she said.

She said the reporter then e-mailed her the press release issued by Fox News, which said Keith would "explain the inspiration behind his song 'Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue."' Ms Schock said she believed the interview was conducted in January 2009 in Las Vegas but she had received no e-mail or phone call from Fox News informing her it would air on Mrs Palin's show this week.

LL Cool J is also suprised to find himself in it:

The LL Cool J interview was from 2008, his spokesman said.

"Contrary to what was reported, LL Cool J was never scheduled to be a guest on 'Real American Stories' with Sarah Palin this week," spokesman Rhett Usry said.. "The show had planned to use an interview from 2008 that was being repurposed without LL's permission.

"This statement is not a reflection of any feelings LL has toward Fox News or Ms. Palin, whom he has never met, rather a clarification of what we have seen published in the media."

There's no problem with making a programme up out of old interviews. Trying to pass old stuff as if it was all-new and specially made, though: that's dodgy.

Could there be a final irony?

Oh, yes. The programme is called Real American Stories.

[via @culturalsnow]

Toby Keith gets upset with Ethan Hawke

I'm not sure what Ethan Hawke was doing writing a feature on Kris Kristofferson for Rolling Stone in the first place, but he did; and in the course of it, made reference to a spat between Kris and an unnamed country star backstage in 2003. The unnamed figure comes off as a bit of a tiresome fool.

Still, it was in Rolling Stone so nobody will notice, right? And the unnamed country singer can rest easy. And even if a person did stumble across the piece, Hawke's gone out his way to not name him, so it's not like anyone will be any the wiser.

Unless he starts to honk his large-galloned hat off, of course.

Hang about... what's that noise? Is that Toby Keith powering up?

"I don't know Ethan Hawke. Ethan Hawke wanted to do some kind of superficial Rolling Stone article. And he did everything he could to make his story the greatest story ever in Rolling Stone," Keith said. "And it was a fictitious (expletive) lie. O.K?

"He didn't even call me by my name. ... He called Norah Jones, Ray Charles, everybody else by name. Willie (Nelson), Kris (Kristofferson). Why didn't he call my name? Why didn't he say Toby Keith walked through and said this (expletive)? Right? You know why. You know why. You know as good as anybody why. He didn't want to (expletive) deal with the aftermath."

Only Toby Keith would think a story about him behaving like a buffoon backstage at a gig would constitute "the greatest story ever in Rolling Stone". It's hard to imagine that an anecdote with Toby Keith in would even manage to compete for the title of "the most interesting anecdote about a man called Keith", to be frank.

Still, it's lovely to see the closing-time thought-buffet that is Keith screaming loudly to ensure that everyone knows the unnamed character in the tale is him, before then shouting even louder about how it isn't true. The best thing to do under these circumstances is draw as much attention as possible to things.

Chicks, Keith disprove their own theory

It's a lovely idea: global warming in a problem facing us all, so why not bring together two acts with opposing political stances to prove that anyone can work together for a greater good?

So, the Alliance for Climate Protection attempted to bring together Toby Keith and the Dixie Chicks for an advert demonstrating this setting aside of animosity and sniping.

Unfortunately, the Dixie Chicks could never commit to a date, and Toby Keith started sniping:

"It's hard to get people that don't get along to agree when all those egos and stuff are involved."

- which, I believe, is the exact opposite of the point of the advert, isn't it?