They say good things come in threes. Apparently, so do bad things. To wit:
Rocco DiSpirito, the self-absorbed tool who used his elderly mom like a pack mule to make meatballs on the NBC/Bravo reality series The Restaurant, crawls out from under his rock to star in Rocco Gets Real on A&E. "There's nothing I love more than helping people find their place at the table," he says. Wrong. There's nothing Rocco loves more than Rocco.
Jon Gruden. Your team’s down by four points with less than a minute to play, and the Cowboys were favored by 2.5. Kick the field goal. Forget going for the win — I needed your team to kick the field goal. Next time, just cover the spread and take your loss like a man, m’kay?
Patti LaBelle. For being yet another diva who turned the National Anthem into a interminable ordeal of hubris and inappropriate vocal acrobatics. If you're gonna croon a slow, soulful version of "The Star Spangled Banner," you've got to be good. Like Marvin Gaye before the 1983 NBA All-Star game good. Not only was Patti not good, she even sang the wrong words: "perilous LIGHT"?! And to add insult to aural injury, she also added words, repeating “free” three excruciating times. Sitting through the National Anthem is usually an anxiety-inducing experience, fearing for the person charged with singing a difficult song that dares you to hit “the rocket’s red glare” without cracking off key. This just made me cringe.
This article appears in Oct 29 – Nov 4, 2008.