Sarah Palin, The Hit of the Party in Hollywood

Sarah Palin generated such a huge interview scrum that it threatened to leave the actual NBC stars ignored.

~ TV Critic Alan Sepinwall via Twitter

By Gary P Jackson

Sarah Palin was the hit of NBC’s annual Summer party at the Television Critics Association Summer press tour . NBC was holding it’s annual event to showcase it’s new season.

Todd, of course, is a contestant on Stars Earn Stripes a program that teams a star up with a member of the military, and the two take part in training exercises similar to what one does in the military. The teams are all competing for charities that benefit military and police.

As always, Sarah is the star in whatever room she’s in, and when among liberals, even they can’t wait to be around her.

As expected, this got a lot of media attention. We’ll start with the New York Times:

Sarah Palin Turns Heads at NBC Party in Beverly Hills

LOS ANGELES — Sarah Palin was given rock star treatment here Tuesday night at a party thrown by NBC for its roster of fall television shows.

She looked like a star, too, in designer sunglasses, green hip-hugging dress, and platform gladiator shoes. Surrounded by packs of reporters around the pool of the Beverly Hilton hotel, which features vintage photos of stars from Hollywood’s golden age along all its halls, she seemed to fit right in.

“Oh, not really,” Mrs. Palin protested. “Everybody puts their pants on one leg at a time.”

Mrs. Palin, the former Alaska governor and the former Republican vice-presidential candidate, was on the scene because her husband, Todd, does star in an upcoming NBC series, a reality competition show called “Stars Earn Stripes,” which pairs celebrities with special operatives from the Navy SEALs and other elite first-responder units, in contests designed to emulate missions. The winners get cash prizes for charities.

Mr. Palin said, “I did things I never thought I would do.” These included jumping out of helicopters, “shooting grenade launchers, shooting a 50-caliber machine gun from World War I.”

When told that a fellow contestant, the former N.F.L. player-turned-actor Terry Crews, reported that Mr. Palin had kicked butt in the competition, Mrs. Palin’s ears perked up.

“Todd’s hard-core,” she said. “He’s a commercial fisherman. He’s a world champion snow-machine racer. He’s got all this physicality.”

Mrs. Palin was displaying some physicality of her own, enough to draw several compliments on her appearance from female reporters, which inspired a broad smile and “Oh, thank you” that emphasized the broad “a” of her Northwest accent. (She did disavow ownership of the shoes, saying she was wearing them “on consignment.”)

The Palin family has become second perhaps only to the Kardashians in terms of reality-show performances on TV. Mrs. Palin herself had a show on TLC, “Sarah Palin’s Alaska.” Her daughter Bristol made a splash on “Dancing With the Stars” and currently has a show on Lifetime that also features her sister Willow and son Tripp. Now Mr. Palin has entered the arena.

Mrs. Palin, who steered clear of all political discussion at the event, defended Bristol’s new show, saying, “It’s clever and absolutely real.” She also said it paints a realistic picture of “what single motherhood really is.”

She praised Todd Palin’s new show for its portrayal of military activities and tied it to her son Track’s service in Afghanistan. “Todd is very cool, calm and collected all the time,” Mrs. Palin said. “I’m just very happy he has the opportunity to participate in an appropriate, worthy cause.”

But asked if she could see herself participating in a second year of “Stars Earn Stripes,” Mrs. Palin said, “I would have to do a lot of push-ups.” When asked if it sounded tougher than politics, she added, in her only brush with a political comment, “Politics are pretty brutal too.”

NBC was clearly surprised by Mrs. Palin’s accessibility at its event. One executive said while she had mentioned she might attend the news conference about her husband’s show, the network did not expect her to join the party for such an extended period of time.

But she was clearly having fun. “I would love these folks to all come up to Alaska to go fishing with us,” Mrs. Palin said. “We could barbecue some salmon on the grill for everybody. That’s how you really get to know people.”

Bruce Miller at the Souix City Journal ran the headline: Sarah Palin trumps stars at NBC party:

How do you gauge “star” power?” By the crowd a celebrity draws.

At a party to promote NBC’s fall shows, Crystal, the Weeping Capucin monkey who stars on “Animal Practice” and is a Hollywood veteran (“Hangover II,” anyone?), clearly had the focus Tuesday night.

And then? Former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin showed up and, clearly, the mob drifted.

Wearing a form-fitting brown dress, high, high, high heels and sunglasses, she attracted as much attention as she did the last election cycle. Never mind that she isn’t on NBC.

Palin was at the Beverly Hilton hotel as a guest of husband Todd, who’s one of the contestants on “Stars Earn Stripes,” a new reality show that features “stars” in boot camp-like situations. Palin admitted she wouldn’t have been good on that show — or “Dancing with the Stars” (“I can’t dance,” she said) — but she enjoyed the attention that came her way.

Todd Palin, meanwhile, pulled back, giving his wife the focus. And through it all, the two looked very star-like. “You look very glamorous,” I told her. “In my Oakley sunglasses?” she said, surprised.

She was very personable — talking about daughter Bristol and the great job soldiers did. And she steered clear of any heavy political talk.

While she didn’t look like a candidate running for office, she did act like one. She took time for just about everyone and didn’t miss a photo op with Gen. Wesley Clark, who’s host of “Stars Earn Stripes.”

Early exit? Not in the least. Palin stayed at the party long past names like Matthew Perry and kept the sunglasses on well past their usefulness.

Of course, the bunch at TV Newser couldn’t resit the snark, claiming Sarah “crashed” the party in their headline. Boring. We did get this from them though:

“God has absolutely blessed us with wonderful opportunities,” Sarah Palin told Jam!’s Bill Harris. “One of our mottoes is to live life vibrantly and that is what we’re doing in participating in different forms and formats that have been presented us.”

[ …. ]

A source at NBC Entertainment tells TVNewser that executives there were just as surprised as attendees that Mrs. Palin stopped by. She was expected to appear at the press conference for “Stars Earn Stripes,” but indicated that she was unlikely to go to the party. She ended up staying for hours, talking to anyone who wanted to say hello.

Invited but unlikely to go is a tad different than “crashing the party,” eh TV Newser? Of course, they ran that headline for the liberals. They have limited comprehension skills and won’t make it past the headline anyhow. So the narrative is created that Sarah “crashed the party” rather that surprised everyone by actually showing up.

Michelle Malkin’s Twitchy has all the interesting tweets and more photos here.

Palin4America has more as well.

Andrew Breitbart consistently said Conservatives need to infiltrate pop culture in order to bring about change. In an interview in May of 2011 with Human Events Jason Mattera, Breitbard said Sarah Palin “gets it”. Indeed she does. No other Conservative has been able to seamlessly move between the worlds of hard core politics and pop culture the was Sarah does. She knows who she is and what she believes in. She’s comfortable in her own skin. In other words, she’s real.

While liberals hate, and the Republican Establishment™ turn their noses up, Sarah Palin continues to win hearts and minds. Team Romney should take note. This is how it’s done!

Video: Sarah Palin Takes Over The “Today Show”

By Gary P Jackson

Sarah Palin was both an interviewee as well as a guest host on the Tuesday morning edition of NBC’s Today Show. As the photo above, as well as the following video shows, she was both playful and serious during the show.

First the interview with Matt Lauer. They are talking presidential politics, and while Lauer tried to get her to say something bad about the prohibitive nominee, Mitt Romney, Sarah wasn’t having it. She remained professional and reminded viewers that absolutely anyone would be better than Obama. She also reminds Lauer that she had a strong record as governor.

Vodpod videos no longer available.

The interview kicked off the 7 o’clock hour. Sarah would return for the 8 o’clock hour where she participated in a segment the show calls “The Professionals” where she was part of a group discussion on topics of interest. She was feisty, to say the least.

She would also do a segment with Tori Spelling and Ann Curry as well as a segment on teenage girls and the pressure society puts on them. In between she did stand-ups outside with the hosts. It’s still cold in New York City, and while the rest were bundled up, Sarah was in shirt sleeves wearing only a stylish scarf. That scene reminded me of the first meeting between Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev. It was very cold. As Gobachev’s limo pulled into the grounds, Reagan went outside to meet him dressed in only a business suit, while Gorbachev, a much younger man, was bundled up in a heavy coat and wearing a fur hat. It was a sign of strength on Reagan’s part.

I rarely comment on Sarah’s looks or choice of clothing, just not my thing, but she was absolutely stunning in all black, with a hint of red, and looked like a million bucks compared to the hosts of the show, who looked tired and old. Only Al Roker came close to matching her in the style category.

In between segments Sarah was a good sport and played around a bit for the camera. As they are talking about her upcoming interview, the camera cut to her sitting on the couch surrounded by newspapers. Later they would show her in Matt Lauer’s dressing room, now taken over by her, complete with her name on tape, pasted over his. Here she pretends to be writing notes on her hand with a magic marker, and then she gives Matt some jazz about his hair products.

NBC put together a short video of some highlights from her appearance:

Vodpod videos no longer available.

It’s interesting that she mentions Tina Fey early. Later during the “Professionals” segment the failed HBO movie Game Change comes up. While it’s obvious Sarah has no respect for the people involved, including the actress playing her, Sarah said she thought Tina Fey’s portrayal of her was OK.

All in all it was a good hour for both NBC and Sarah Palin. Sarah was able to take her brand of common sense Conservatism and expose her wit and wisdom to a different audience. It proves that Sarah can do pretty much anything she wants to.

It’s good that she’s engaging the left. The best way to win hearts and minds is to go and do it. As morning shows go, NBC is the biggest, so she had the chance to bring Conservatism to a significant audience. Sarah knows how to use the media to get her message out better than anyone in politics today. I look forward to seeing her doing more in the future.

Video Call-In: Sarah Palin to Host NBC’s Today Show Tuesday

By Gary P Jackson

By now, you’ve probably heard Sarah Palin will be hosting NBC’s Today Show Tuesday morning.

Deliciously, Sarah will be hosting on NBC at the same time failed news anchor and talk show host Katie Couric is attempting a comeback of sorts by hosting ABC’s Good Morning America.

In an exclusive interview with Andrew Marlow at Andrew Breitbart’s Big Journalism Sarah noted:

I see this as a good opportunity to bring an independent, common-sense conservative perspective to NBC. We’re ‘going rogue‘ and infiltrating some turf for a day.

You can read the entire interview here.

E! Online reports:

“Palin is coming Tuesday as a live guest in the 7 a.m. hour for an interview on the political news of the day. Then she will co-host the 8 a.m. hour and take part in some of the show segments,” a rep for NBC tells E! News.

When asked about the match-up with Couric, NBC told E!:

“They’ve been trying to make this happen ever since the show (and Matt) visited her at her home in Wasilla back in 2008. Their decision stems from the fact that she knows politics, she’s a hockey mom and she’s had considerable TV experience in the last few years,” NBC explained. “Today feels she’s very comfortable talking about a wide range of topics that will resonate with morning TV viewers.”

For her part, when asked about going up against the “Perky One” Sarah simply said “Game On!”

Sarah called into the Today Show Monday morning. She and the cast goofed around a bit and then talked about her upcoming appearance.

Vodpod videos no longer available.

Katie Couric is hoping to use her time on ABC to gauge her future in television. Good luck with that.

Disgraceful: NBC Cuts “Under God” From Pledge of Allegiance During U.S. Open Coverage

On Sunday during it’s opening of coverage of the U.S. Open, NBC aired what it claims was a “feature that captured the patriotism of our national championship being held in our nation’s capital for the third time.” Children saying our Pledge of Allegiance was part of this intro. However, as you will see, the good folks at NBC took it upon themselves to edit “under God” out of this sacred pledge:

NBC issued a lukewarm CYA statement, hoping it would be considered an apology: [and the Washington Post aided NBC with their headline]

We began our coverage of this final round just about three hours ago and when we did it was our intent to begin the coverage of this U.S. Open Championship with a feature that captured the patriotism of our national championship being held in our nation’s capital for the third time. Regrettably, a portion of the Pledge of Allegiance that was in that feature was edited out. It was not done to upset anyone and we’d like to apologize to those of you who were offended by it.

This statement only came after Twitter, and the NBC switchboards, lit up in protest. That’s pretty much how the progressives work. They do something evil, then when enough people protest, they try and make it seem like an innocent slight.

This is an insult to every American. It’s a double insult to those brave men and women who have fought, and died to keep America free.