Convicted … of a bad hair day
Ridiculous hair. A talent for overstatement. There was more than enough of both to go around as Donald Trump led a roast of Don King at the Friars Club Oct. 25.
The boxing promoter merrily withstood a barrage of jabs, hooks and uppercuts. While King’s electrified hairdo seemed the obvious avenue of attack for Trump and the 12 roasting friends and comics, they instead began with a smoking gun.
“I have a catch phrase: ‘You’re fired,’ ” Trump said. “Don King has a catch phrase: ‘Not guilty.’ “
In 1954, King shot a man who was trying to rob one of his gambling houses and it was ruled a justifiable homicide. In 1966, he was convicted of killing an employee who owed him money, but his sentence was reduced to non-negligent manslaughter.
Comedian Colin Quinn said the hair of King, Trump and Rev. Al Sharpton “look like the three stages of a forest fire.”
All the while, the 72-year-old King chuckled along. When it came time for him to take the podium, King lapsed into his trademark flurry of adjectives, including claims that he was “the father of hip-hop” and that “George Walker Bush is a revolutionary.”
A cookie monster
Former NBA star and current TNT commentator Charles Barkley recently made a guest appearance on Jay Leno’s “The Tonight Show.” He followed 11-year-old actress Dakota Fanning, who stars in the horse-racing movie, “Dreamer.”
Fanning, a Girl Scout, had been discussing selling Girl Scout cookies with Leno. So when Barkley came out, Leno said, “Maybe Charles will buy some Girl Scout cookies.”
“But it’s not Girl Scout cookie season yet,” Fanning explained.
Said Barkley: “Every season is cookie season.”
Overachiever
Larry Brown, the New York Knicks’ new coach, in an NBA-TV special, said of his peripatetic career: “If you look at coaching today, we’ve had over 100 coaching changes in less than three years in the NBA. So maybe I’ve been ahead of the curve.”
The last word
From Jim Armstrong of the Denver Post: “According to USA Today, 71,000 Americans are more than 100 years old – 71,001 if you count Vikings coach Mike Tice, who has aged 60 years since training camp.”