Keith Olbermann poses as Howard Beale for magazine photo shoot

[Berry Cool]

Today on Dan Patrick's ESPN Radio show, Keith Olbermann mentioned at one point, apropos of nothing, that he was "wearing pajamas." When Dan asked him why (Dan normally does the show from ESPN headquarters in Connecticut while Keith patches in from somewhere in New York City, so Dan has no idea where Keith is or how he's dressed), Keith explained that he was at the MSNBC studios, posing in a photo shoot for a national magazine he was not yet at liberty to name. In the photos, he would be dressed in pajamas and a trenchcoat, depicting Howard Beale from the movie Network. He also mentioned that this was in connection with an award of some kind.

Some longtime Keith fans will recall that he actually closed Countdown on a surprise note one night in March of 2005 by doing much the same thing. During a final story on how real-life events were beginning to approximate events depicted in 1970s movies, Keith touched on the subject of Network (with clips) and how eerily it had predicted much of future television, including everything Howard Beale had ranted about. When the camera moved back to Keith, sure enough, he was dressed in a trenchcoat, with his hair mussed--and he was reeling off the Beale spiel. Only he ended it with asking viewers to open their windows and yell..."Good night and good luck." He then wandered aimlessly around the set for a while, paused to remove his glasses and splash himself in the face with a cup of water, and finally wandered off the set.



It was a night that will live in Olbermann lore.

Looks as if the story is coming full circle now! I can't wait to see the results of this shoot.

[Opusnone]

1. I hope keith remembers what happened to Beale!

I mean, I hope he's seen the movie. )

[Berry Cool]

2. Oh, he has.

That's why he brought it up on his show last year.

I think he knows better than most people what he has to look out for!

[Rex]

3. KO is way above the intelligence curve. Some of his humor is really

sublime. I think KO is ready for anything Rove can throw at him. He is the Sam Sedar of TV.