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Feb. 10, 2008
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

MIKE WEATHERFORD: Little says criticism a knife in the back

MIKE WEATHERFORD
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It's weird to hear Rich Little groan at the sound of your name on the radio.

Probably as weird as it is for him to read in our pages that his act is "in danger of being upstaged by its opening video."

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    • The little dance we do here in covering entertainment came up recently when Little was on KNPR-FM's "State of Nevada," hosted by former Review-Journal colleague Dave Berns.

    "I don't know what his game is," the impressionist said of yours truly. "He makes friends with you and then stabs you in the back."

    Ouch, Rich! Thy saber cutteth both ways.

    Little must have been confused by the rules of conduct here. They can get cloudy, so they're worth repeating.

    Those who work in the newsroom figure readers understand, say, the effort to divide political opinions on the R-J editorial page from the attempt to be impartial elsewhere in the paper.

    Yet the R-J is widely known as "the conservative paper." And as newspapers respond to the instant-information era with more interpretive, colorful writing, the division gets blurrier.

    Likewise, who could blame a veteran impressionist for the disconnect between my Nov. 2 Neon cover profile of him and the subsequent review of his act?

    In the interview, it was undeniably fun to sit inside Frank Sinatra's former dressing room at the Golden Nugget and hear Little's show business stories. Is that "making friends" or being civil?

    But then comes the review. That's when my hat changes and loyalty switches to you, the consumer and potential ticket-buyer.

    I thought I was constructive, suggesting Little should perhaps restructure the anachronistic act as a memoir. His radio chat with Berns drifted into Little restating the futility of mimicking today's nondescript movie stars, as though I had suggested otherwise.

    There I can only say, you've got to actually read the thing. Can't help you if you just read the headline and the letter grade.

    Some days I do miss the "good cop, bad cop" days when I would do the interviews and Michael Paskevich would come in for the dirty work. But the good part of doing it otherwise is that most entertainers learn to move on and understand the separation.

    Howie Mandel once said the strangest thing about working Las Vegas is riding up the elevator with the people you've just performed to. I've had more than a few awkward, metaphoric elevator rides with entertainers over the years. But usually, no one steps out with a knife in the back.

    Mike Weatherford's entertainment column appears Thursdays and Sundays. Contact him at 383-0288 or e-mail him at mweatherford@ reviewjournal.com.

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    Goddess wrote on February 19, 2008 03:37 PM: Come on guys. RL is not well, probably working his tail off supporting his 30 years younger wife


    GOD wrote on February 10, 2008 07:12 PM: Hey Mark$ --- stick to the Las Vegas Sun rag insert.

    Oh, I know, you must be down in the dumps after Hitlary's defeat upon defeat, but don't worry, crazy Harry Reid's got your back.


    Mark$ wrote on February 10, 2008 12:58 PM: You know, I have to hand it to the R-J. It IS a laughably rightwing newspaper in its editorials, not merely "conservative" as Weatherford says, but at least it has chosen to prove this blog as a forum, for gadflies like myself who dare to cut through the massive brown-nosing that passes for cultural criticism in Las Vegas (like Norm, who never met an obsequious press release he didn't like, and sleepily pass on in his beyond-boring column). And such is the democratic nature of anonymous blogging, that ANY sub-literate can submit, such as the gent below who fancies himself a deity, with insults of such charming reasoning ..


    GOD wrote on February 10, 2008 11:42 AM: Mark$ - go back to your NAMBLA and moveon.org blogging, you're an idiot.
    WOW Mark$, you learned how to cut and paste.

    Rick Little has always been a man of class and distinction - something far from Mark$ or Mike Weatherford.


    Mark$ wrote on February 10, 2008 10:08 AM: The Radio & Television Correspondents' Association of press people who cover the White House have an annual dinner to which the president is invited. Needless to say, any contemporary comedian they ask to be the keynote speaker would tend to want to skewer "the worst president in history", "the most despised president in history" sitting up on the dais with that stupid look on his face that "w" has perfected. But not Rich Little, when he showed up a year ago. The lamest jokes, lockerroom vulgarity of the "your father's Oldsmobile" variety, impressions of Richard Nixon. It was such a stupid performance that when the audience finished groaning, many said what's the point of even having this dinner any more, if they're so afraid to alienate our intellectually-impaired president that they'd invite an irrelevant dope like Little. I say, hang it up, your act got old when Lillian Carter died, Rich.