Reprinted from www.truthdig.com
PASADENA, Calif.--After fumbling with a thin piece of black silk for half an hour in front of a YouTube video called "How to Tie the Perfect Bow Tie" and achieving only marginal success, I went to the 44th Daytime Emmy Awards. I was nominated for outstanding information talk show host. The other nominees were Steve Harvey and the hosts of "The Chew," "The Dr. Oz Show, "Larry King Now" and "The Kitchen." Harvey won.
I made my way down the red carpet ignored, thankfully, by the gaggle of press whose questions revolved around two themes--how do you feel to be here and tell us what you are wearing. The celebrities, mostly soap opera stars, had the generic attractiveness found on movie and television screens, some of it clearly enhanced through surgery and injections, and the bubbly effervescence we expect from entertainers.
"I dreamt about coming here as a little kid and now here I am," Ross Mathews, a judge on RuPaul's "Drag Race," told Red Carpet TV. "I get to present tonight. Best game show. This is a moment, a day, I'll never forget."
I looked at the reporters and television crews behind the rope that stretched the length of the carpet and wondered what the ratio is between reporters in the United States who cover entertainment and fashion and reporters who cover the poor. I'm sure it is a bleak statistic.
After my ticket was examined, I was ushered into a hall with my fellow nominees, none of whom I recognized with the exception of Larry King, and was served champagne and snacks such as pita bread, hummus and olives.Then we were hectored into the neighboring Pasadena Civic Auditorium by frequent public address announcements that counted down the minutes until the show began. We took our seats. The lights dimmed. The awards ceremony started.
"I'm definitely feeling the love right now," Mario Lopez, a host of "Extra," said to his Emmy co-host, the comedian Sheryl Underwood. "Are you feeling the love, Sheryl?"
"I'd like to feel the love, Mario," Underwood, a host on "The Talk," said. "What are you doing after the show?"
"Let's talk about that later," he answered.
"What do I have to do?" she asked. "Buy your wife a refrigerator?"
This kind of banter, usually with a much older man making sexual overtures to a young woman, is classic vaudeville. In an age of gender equality, it was updated for a 53-year-old woman and a man 10 years her junior. Underwood told Lopez he might be tied up with his own tie later.
"Is he gorgeous or what, ladies?" she asked. The audience cheered.
"Twitter is my second home," she said. "My Twitter handle is @sherylunderwood. I have close to 1 million followers. How many do you have, Mario?"
"I'm not a big social media person," he replied. "But I think the last time I checked I have around 1.3 million followers on Twitter."
"You just had to brag," she said. "I need to get me more Twitter followers. Step aside, Mario. I need to beg. I need everyone watching to follow me @sherylunderwood. Follow me right now. I need you to follow me. By the time this show is over, we'll see who has the most followers. In fact, Mario, let's make a deal. Whoever has the most followers at the end of the show has to have sex with the one who has the least. That's a win-win for me either way. And let me tell you, Mario, there's not enough baby oil in Pasadena for what's going to happen to you tonight."
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