Faced with an unexploited marketing opportunity, terrorist television chef and EVOO enthusiast Rachael Ray is affixing her name to a new line of dog food. It will carry Ray's signature brand of obnoxious phrasing: Rachael Ray Nutrish. It is expected to be followed up with a line of cat food, both of which we imagine will be featured in a cookbook called 30 Minute Meals to Serve to Your Pups or Perverted Husband.
It's not that Dunkin' Donuts actually thinks living endorsement Rachael Ray is supporting terrorism by wearing this black-and-white scarf in one of its ads. But the attacks from the right-y blogs, including Michelle Malkin's, has the company deciding that it's easier to pull the ad all together than defend itself against criticism that Ray is actually wearing a keffiyeh, or, as Malkin describes it, "the traditional scarf of Arab men that has come to symbolize murderous Palestinian jihad." [BG] Ray, who used to hoc Urban Outfitters scarfs on her website before the DD ad, joins celebrities like Ricky Martin who dared to wear the accessory without realizing it's as controversial as a KKK hood. Or that some people believe it to be.
Telepictures Productions, the folks behind Ellen DeGeneres' talk show, weren't about to let Rachael Ray cannibalize their girl's ratings by using Telepictures' own footage.
With Ray planning a Rosie O'Donnell tribute show, her producers planned to use clips from The Rosie O’Donnell Show — a show Telepictures owns. They do not, however, back Ray's show, which means they didn't want her stealing ratings points from Ellen in markets they go head-to-head.
So yesterday – as in the day before today, when the show Rosie episode aired – Telepictures rang The Rachael Ray Show and demanded they not use footage from Rosie's old show, hoping the time constraint would force them to pull the taped show.
But Ray's camp refused, and the program aired as intended today. Which means if Telepictures doesn't file some sort of copyright infringement legal action, the only remaining part of this story is how O'Donnell will turn this into a Rosie.com haiku.
Though Oprah may have given Rachael Ray her shot at TV, the cook's reps have no problem trashing the daytime queen if it means saving face for the client. When Page Six reached out to Ray's camp about rumors from "an impeccable TV source" that Ray's show was being canceled by King World for dismal ratings (she earns a not terribly impressive 2.5 rating), her rep jumped to remind the column that even Oprah's ratings are down 15 percent from February 2007. As for Ray's older viewers, who have an average age of 55.1 (and 688,000 women in the target 18-49 category), again Ray's camp refutes it with data from Oprah's show, where the average age is 54.6.
So is Ray getting the ax? Her rep says the show is signed on through 2010, but the contract may have an out clause based on any number of factors.
More spin from Ray's camp was sent to Huffington Post: "And with regard to our median age rising, yes it has, but less than 3% and the explanation for that is we have a loyal viewership that has been with us since the show launched and they had a birthday since last year!" Or another way of looking at it: They aren't attracting any new viewers. Not that we're cynics!
Update: Ray's camp, obviously very upset with the coverage their show received today, gets in touch with Jossip to point out errors in the P6 item:
1. They call Rachael's Food Network show "30 Minutes a Day." Obviously this is incorrect it is "30 Minute Meals."
2. They claim that King World is producing a chat show for Marie Osmond. This one blows me away….King World has nothing to do with this proposed show. It is being pitched around town by another syndication company called "Program Partners." All anyone would had to of done was google "Marie Osmond" and talk show.
3. And finally, as I said King World doesn't even exist any more. It was purchased awhile ago and is now called CBS Television Distribution. [Ed: To be fair, the email did come from an @kingworld.com email account]
4. In terms of numbers the article reads that Oprah, Regis, Tyra and Martha were down 15% this February sweeps period. Untrue! Regis and Kelly were down 16%, Tyra Banks down 13% and Martha Stewart down 27%. These numbers are widely available from Nielsen and were published this week in several trade publications. Guess no one cared to fact check.
WHAT’S THE OPPOSITE OF YUM-O? Two senior editors at Every Day With Rachael Ray, Reader's Digest property, have resigned to work on a start-up magazine with Hearst. [NYP]
One is never proud of watching the Food Network.
But turn on the channel at 11 am or 3 am, someone who isn’t too attractive or too personable is on, boiling water and squishing tomatoes. Watching the Food Network is like placing your brain in neutral, which isn’t so bad every once in a while.
But that strategy isn’t working anymore. The network is losing what little audience it has; some stars, like Emeril Lagasse and Mario Batali, are peacing, and Rachael Ray is limiting her work on the network so she can become the lazy woman’s Martha Stewart. CONTINUED »
• Note to the slutty American Idol wannabe who now has her very own third-rate porn tape: the journey is so over.
• Donald Trump denies giving a waiter a $10,000, cites his lifelong history of miserliness as evidence.
• Tara Reid could almost pass for a high-class rent girl. Related: Reid's parents are said to be bursting with pride.
• Yep, this awkward, dispassionate PDA totally clears up any misgivings we had about Rachael Ray's marital troubles.
• Ever heard a native New Yorker grouse that Times Square makes him/her want to vomit? Allow us to introduce Exhibit A.
Rachael Ray sets the record straight by denying persistent rumors that her marriage to fledgling musician-slash-attorney John Cusimano is in jeopardy. Says Ray: "I love him desperately and I would never be stupid enough to give up free legal advice, a rock star, and a great cook, and handsome guy at that."
And we admire the woman's conviction although, frankly, we're not entirely sure about the whole "rock star" part. That said, Rachael raises a good point: why would she ever consider dumping a negligibly talented guitar player who's rumored (but not conclusively proven) to have a "thing" for spitting in other women's faces?
Especially when he's also a lawyer and could totally destroy her in the divorce settlement.
• Bert and Ernie get some aural action, reenact the infamous De Niro/Pesci argument from Casino. Next up: A muppets-only reenactment of Prodigy's heartwarming classic, "Smack My Bitch Up."
• Gisele Bundchen rocks a dress made entirely out of water prompting a jealous Jessica Stam to snipe, "Evian, that's so last season."
• Jessica Simpson pretends to be a washed-up star with a major drinking problem. Yep, we can't for the life of us imagine who she's channeling for inspiration.
• Rachael Ray earned $500 million for teaching mentally challenged people how to prepare peanut butter and jelly sandwiches??
In addition to fighting obesity (while simultaneously whoring herself out to Dunkin' Donuts) Rachael Ray has had to contend with a streak of nasty rumors insinuating that her marriage—like her recipe for peach margaritas—is on the rocks.
Fortunately, Us Weekly gets to the bottom of things, by asking Rachael point blank, whether everything is copacetic in the House of Ray.
• Ivanka Trump is reportedly competing with Gale King, Whoopi Goldberg, Kathy Griffin and Mario "So Gay He's One Of The Girls" Cantone for Rosie's spot on The View.
• More rumors that celebrity chef Rachael Ray and her hubby of two years might be "slightly overdone."
• Can you imagine going on vacation with Denise Richards, bringing her to a romantic, secluded beach and then dumping her? Richie Sambora can!
• Meet Lance Bass' new main squeeze, Pedro Andrade. He's a good boy, crazy 'bout Elvis, loves horses. And his boyfriend, too.
• Live Earth is a global concert geared towards raising awareness and money in an effort to combat global warming. It's also an excuse for a bunch of prissy Brits to start bitching about Phil Collins.
• Some trashy Italian bird cops to sleeping with Pete Doherty. On purpose.
Sometimes, the New York Post is predictably glib, with its signature no-holds-barred headlines seamlessly interspersing groan-inducing puns with lowbrow topicality.
Other times, however, the NYP stumbles into the realm of inadvertent humor, as with the recent publication listing "NEW YORK'S 50 MOST POWERFUL WOMEN."
Numbers 1-4 were fairly tame, if somewhat debatable (Hillary Clinton, Diane Sawyer, Christine Quinn and Beyonce** respectively) but it was the write-up of #5 that really grabbed our attention.
CONTINUED »
• NYT to LAT: We weren't actively trying to insult you—we were just saying nice things about our newspaper that happened to expose the shortcomings of yours.
• American Idol epitomizes the unpleasant side-effects that accompany living in a democracy.
• Magazines in heated competition to see who can throw the best post-Super Bowl cokefest.
• Folio Magazine reports a 400% increase in magazines targeting people "much, much richer" than you.
• Summary of this year's Mag Lifetime Achievement Awards: Liz Smith tried, failed, to bang Lewis Lapham; Rachael Ray "loves" spaghetti, still hates black people.
• Billionaire accuses Sahara author of "duping him" on film rights; rest of world accuses Sahara author of writing a book that makes no fucking sense.
• Food Network star Rachael Ray is possibly racist, definitely annoying.
• K-Fed's worst nightmare is losing Britney's fortune and ending up in the fast food industry. Related: the fast food industry's worst nightmare is being portrayed by K-Fed in a commercial.
• Hugh Hefner shoots down Kelly Osbourne's dreams of posing nude—and heavily airbrushed—in Playboy magazine.
• Jennifer Aniston gets plastic surgery, denies it; Ashlee Simpson welcomes her to the club.
• Mandy Moore is rumored to be dating DJ A.M. for the publicity; DJ A.M. is rumored to be dating Mandy Moore because she's "really, really hot."
• Scott Baio is shopping around a memoir about how he got dumped by most of Hollywood's leading ladies.
• The Washington Post announces plans to publish fiction for the very first time; "Been there, done that!" scoffs the NYT.
• It's opening day at the Scooter Libby trial, also known as "just one more thing you won't get to read about in Valerie Plame's book."
• Parents suddenly catching on to this whole newfangled MySpace thing.
• CBS responds to threat of never-ending Today show, announcing two more years of Rachael Ray.
• The biggest problem for YouTube's marketing team? "There are only 365 days in a year." Oh, to be bought by Google…
Editorial Director
