Everyone wants a piece of Susan Boyle, the 47 year-old unemployed Scottish spinster who captured the hearts of millions with a beautiful pitch perfect rendition of “I Dreamed a Dream” on last week’s edition of “Britain’s Got Talent.” People around the world are captivated by Susan’s story of an older woman living in obscurity who was able to audition for a reality show and instantly change her life and fortune with an immense talent hidden for years. I was hoping that Susan would perform again on this week’s edition of the show, but similar to the first round of American Idol it’s currently in the audition phase and Susan has made it to the next phase and won’t appear for some time. She’s been interviewed from her home in Scotland throughout the week, though, and has appeared on CBS’ early show, The Today Show, and CNN’s Larry King Live.

On Larry King, Boyle sang a new song, Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On.” Judge Pierce Morgan, also on via satellite, called it “amazing” and asked Boyle if she would go to dinner with him. She gladly accepted. Boyle explained that the mild taunting of her ahead of her performance on the show didn’t bother her and that she knew she had to just push through it and perform. The choice of her audition song “I Dreamed a Dream” from Les Miserables, about lost hope and lost love, was significant, she said:

True, she astounded the likes of Simon Cowell on England’s Britain’s Got Talent with her vocal stylings. But prior to her performance, the judges and audience made no attempt to hide their snickering as they openly made fun of the 47-year-old’s appearance on stage.

It’s fair now to say that Boyle showed them, but what was she thinking up there as she faced a sea of judgement?

“It didn’t bother me at all,” Boyle told Larry King on Larry King Live Friday night. “I just got on with my act because that’s what you’re there for, to keep going.”

Britain’s Got Talent judge, Piers Morgan, says it’s Susan’s confidence that really sets her apart. “I think she’s got an amazing spirit and determination,” he told King. “I think that Susan had an absolute confidence in her ability as a singer so she didn’t really care that people were laughing or not laughing. I think she was more focused on the fact that she had her chance, a shot. It was almost like the Rocky Balboa script. Coming out of nowhere and you get a shot, you take it, and suddenly you’re the world’s champion.”

Susan tells King she’s taken “a few singing lessons” for two years. When asked why she chose the song “I Dreamed a Dream” from the Broadway smash Les Miserables, she said, “I sang that song because it fit within the circumstances of the particular time. It was the way I was feeling at the time, it sort of summed up what I was aiming for.”

[From OK! Magazine]

In a taped segment ahead of Boyle’s Today Show appearance on Friday, panel judge Amanda Holden said that no makeover was planned for Boyle and that “The minute we turn her into a glamour-puss is when it’s spoilt.”

Susan’s performance has received nearly 33 million views on You Tube. I know I’ve watched it many times. I’m just waiting to hear when she’ll perform again and can’t wait to see what she does next.

George Clooney has been making the publicity rounds since his recent trip to the Chad-Sudan border. He pretty much gave a press conference after his meeting with Vice President Joe Biden and President Barack Obama – Clooney himself announced that Obama was appointing a special envoy to Sudan, to deal with the ongoing, five-year genocide that has displaced millions and killed more than 200,000 civilians.

One of Clooney’s press stops was Larry King Live. Now, I rarely watch Larry King anymore because I think Larry is stepping into gargoyle territory. But the CNN website posts highlights and transcripts from Larry King’s shows, and if it’s an interesting guest, it’s fun to skim them.

Clooney talks about Darfur, of course, almost all of the information we covered yesterday. But Clooney also talked a little about other stuff, including a dismissal of NYT‘s Nicholas Kristof‘s reporting that Clooney‘s UN security detail was pulled. Here are some highlights, courtesy of CNN:

King: What scale of interest did Biden show [in Darfur]?
Clooney: Biden has been incredibly vocal on the issue. We had a long talk about the idea of, first and foremost, appointing a high level, full-time envoy that reports directly to the White House so that it’s not just temporary. We need somebody working on this, you know, every day — getting up every morning with their sole job to find peace in the area.
King: What did you see last week?

Clooney: It was rough. You know, it’s always rough over there. You feel terrible for them. They’re hanging on by a thread.
We saw an awful lot of fear. There was [also] a tremendous amount of hope. You know, there was a lot of hope that these indictments and this new administration are going to be able to help move the international community toward a real peace.

King: How do you handle just meeting with these people and seeing this tragedy? Personally, how do you handle it?
Clooney: I could tell you a million stories about how it actually affects you personally. But I don’t think people should be going there and coming back and saying how it affected them. I think somehow we should all know that these people are hanging on by the skin of their teeth.

King: Was your safety in jeopardy?
Clooney: Oh, you’re talking about the U.N. story.

King: Yes. What, they pulled your security, right?
Clooney: I was never in jeopardy. I was with journalists who wanted to go into some areas that weren’t particularly safe. And we decided that we would go. And that wasn’t necessarily part of what the U.N. was looking to do. And so we just went on our own. It was fine. I wanted to say something, also, Larry, which I forgot to say about what I just did today. I delivered 250,000 postcards signed by people all across the country who wanted to help give some political capital to and remind this administration of how important this issue is. It was from the Save Darfur people. But it’s from all across the country. And we’re probably going to have another 700,000 by the end of the week.

King: What specifically, George, do you want Secretary of State Clinton and the administration to do?
Clooney: It doesn’t appear that the United States is going to send troops in or that the U.N. Is going to send in an army to do this. What it really means is that we’re going to need diplomacy. And diplomacy has to start and it has to be aggressive and it has to start soon. We have an opportunity here.

King: One other quick thing. Are you going to be in the final presentation of “E.R. ?”
Clooney: Actually, I’m doing a remake of “Friends,” which — I didn’t want to break the news.

King: Oh, my gosh.
Clooney: I’m going be playing the Jennifer Aniston role.

From CNN

Interesting, right? I liked the part about the postcards sent from concerned people around the country – it seems like something that President Obama would respond to. I also liked how Clooney doesn’t really blame this administration or a past administration for not sending American troops into Darfur. Those are the kind of suggestions that send even sympathetic people running. No one wants a replay of Somalia in 1993.

Something that goes unspoken – and I haven’t seen this anywhere else – is that Clooney’s hairline during this interview is… weird. Like, he seems to have re-grown about an inch of his hair line. If it’s hairplugs, it’s really good work. If it’s a toupee, it’s a high-quality one. Something’s happening up there, I know it.

Brad Pitt on balancing privacy and exposure

Brad Pitt appeared on Larry King Live last night to promote his new film and talk about his Make It Right project a year after he first toured the building site with the talk show host. Pitt discussed the election, the difference he hopes to make in New Orleans for families displaced by Katrina, and his family. He was guarded but gave some funny general statements about his kids and talked about how fulfilling it is to be a father. Pitt also addressed the reasons why they decided to sell the first photos of Shiloh and the twins to magazines:

On having kids: it wears you out
King: Do you think — do you think having kids — as you have so many — keeps you young?

Pitt: I have so many. No, man, it wears you out. Are you kidding? I’m aging fast.

King: But there’s nothing better in the world, right?

Pitt: It’s worth every second of it.

King: There’s nothing better in the world than being a father.

Pitt: Not for me there’s not. No, not for me. I would agree with that

On his wild past: he got it out of his system
Of course, you know, I got to spend a few decades being idiotic and hell-bent and solipsistic, and everything else. So, you know, I got time to get all that out of my system. So …

King: You mean there was a wild Brad Pitt?

Pitt: I mean, wild in my book, yes. Yes, sure.

Pitt: Yes, I got away with a lot, Larry.

On balancing privacy and exposure for his family
Well, the pictures for “W,” you know, it’s a really strange feeling. It’s something Angie and I had to talk a lot about, especially with the birth of Shiloh. You know, these pictures were going to come out — these pictures are — you know, I’m talking about the pictures of the kids.

There’s a bounty on our heads. And these pictures are going to come out at some point. And they’re going to be chasing us, and they’re going to — they’re going to go to the ends of the earth to get these photos. Video Watch Pitt on privacy »

And we just thought, well, maybe we could — since there’s such a bounty, and that bounty is so obnoxious, we could take that money and funnel it to something good. And that’s what we decided to do.

It’s still a bit uncomfortable to do such a thing, but I know it’s right in the end. And that was a decision we made.

The “W” photos were just — we just didn’t want to leave the house, so we just figured we’d do it ourselves, and had a good time doing it.

[From the CNN.com transcript of Brad Pitt's appearance on Larry King Live, aired 10/5/08, subheaders added]

I like how Pitt explained their decision to sell the baby photos as something that wasn’t taken lightly and that he still is not entirely comfortable with. What would you do if your family was hounded like that? People have broken into their homes, laid in wait in the woods only to get into bloody fights with their security, and have stalked and harassed them for years. They try to place nice when they can and occasionally stage cute photos with the children, but also work to minimize the impact on their family. It’s a hard balance to strike and one that it’s clear they still struggle with.

Pitt also talked about the place he calls his family’s “base camp”, New Orleans, and said that they feel the most at home there. He said “it’s a place that we can actually walk on the streets,” and described how his neighbors kind of wave and let them go on their way. “They’ve got their own thing going here,” Pitt explained.

Pitt mentioned that he experienced a sense of his own mortality making his critically lauded film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. He said it made him realize that he only has so much time left, which made him question how he was living his life. “How do I want to use [that time]? And who do I want to spend it with?… This film just makes me want to hug my kids and call my folks.”

You can read the transcript of Brad Pitt’s Larry King interview on CNN.com.

Here are some more excerpts from Pitt’s interview last night:

Larry King’s sixth and current wife Shawn, 48, carried on a torrid affair for a year with the 29 year-old baseball instructor to the couple’s eight and nine year-old sons. The National Enquirer has the dirt, which they say comes from multiple sources who have independently confirmed the details. The way they tell it, Shawn was a sex-craved housewife who slept with her son’s young coach all over the mansion she shared with Larry. The two stopped seeing each other once Larry confronted the guy, and Shawn ended up going to rehab for a treatment for a prescription painkiller addiction this summer. There were rumors at the time that Larry planned to dump Shawn when she returned from rehab, but the 74 year-old talkshow host has forgiven his wife’s affair and plans to stay with her.

Larry King has caught his wife cheating with their young sons’ baseball coach, the Enquirer has learned exclusively.

Willowy blonde beauty Shawn King, 48, carried on a year-long extramarital affair right under Larry’s nose with hunky 29-year-old Hector Penate, according to multiple sources with direct knowledge of the intimate relationship.

The Enquirer’s blockbuster investigation has also uncovered that Shawn and Hector were so brazen, they made love on the desk in 74 year-old Larry’s home office!

Shawn even paraded through Beverly Hills holding hands with her lover, according to insiders. Their illicit liaison began to unravel when Shawn’s dependency on the powerful painkiller Vicodin deepened, but it didn’t end until the CNN talk-show host confronted Penate, sources say.

Larry… is heartbroken over his wife’s cheating, but he’s chosen not to end their 11-year marriage, insiders say.

“I truly love my wife and I stand squarely behind her and support her,” Larry told The Enquirer through his spokesman Howard Rubenstein.

Penate no longer coaches the couple’s two boys, said Rubenstein and declared: “Shawn adamantly denies the allegations that she had an affair with the sports instructor.”

But Shawn’s denial is contradicted by multiple sources who, during a period of months, provided the Enquirer with key evidence about the love affair.

When contacted by The Enquirer, Penate did not deny the affair, adding: “I’d love to be able to talk to you, but I can’t.”

[From The National Enquirer, print edition, November 17, 2008]

The Enquirer has more salacious details, including the story of how Shawn supposedly pursued coach Hector and bought him gifts of jewelry and sent him multiple text messages a day. She is even said to have become threatening when Hector tried to call it off. Their affair ended for good when Larry confronted Hector about six months ago and told him he knew what was going on and had to fire him. Hector claimed that it was Shawn who came on to him, while Shawn had been able to talk to Larry first and convince him that she was seduced by Hector.

You wonder why one spouse would stay with the other after they had a year-long affair. It doesn’t matter who seduced whom because it takes two. Maybe Larry figures he’s getting on in years and he may as well stick with the mother of his youngest children. He’s been married seven times to six different women, it’s not like he has a great track record either.

Larry and Shawn King are shown in the header on 5/17/08 and below with their two boys on 2/3/08. Credit: WENN

Soft-hitting talk show host Larry King, 74, is on his seventh wife and he seems to be just about as committed to her as he was to his other six wives. Shawn Southwick, 48, has been married to King for 11 years and they have two sons together, Chance Armstrong, 9, and Cannon Edward, 8. Shawn entered rehab late last month for an addiction to painkillers used to cope with what she claims is a chronic migraine problem. Larry and Shawn have a troubled relationship, and the two were seen having an argument that came to blows outside a restaurant last year. Larry denied at the time that the fight was serious, but The Enquirer has a source which claims that they fight constantly and that King is going to give Shawn the boot once she gets back from rehab.

Larry King plans to divorce his wife Shawn after she recovers from a rehab stint for pill dependency, a source close to the talk-show host told the Enquirer. The 74-year-old CNN star has told pals he’s decided to end his nearly 11-year marriage…

In our Feb 26, 2007, issue we reported that the fight started when Larry wanted to sit with pals at a table in the middle of the deli, but Shawn wanted to sit in a side booth – away from his friends.

Larry exploded in anger, and after forcibly trying to bring her to the seat he wanted, Shawn stormed out. Once outside, Larry grabbed Shawn by the arm, and she slapped him across the face.

By then, “Larry was raging with anger and called Shawn a ‘dirty whore’ and pushed her,” a source revealed.

When contacted at the time but the Enquirer, Larry said: “We got into a little tiff that lasted about two seconds. It’s over now. We’re happily married and not getting a divorce.”

[From The National Enquirer, print edition, August 4, 2008]

Shawn should be out of rehab around the end of this month, but The Enquirer reports that she’s likely to stay in an after-care facility for a while. Their insider says “Larry plans on waiting for Shawn to recover before he drops divorce papers on her, but he thinks that will be very soon.”

This sounds like it’s true, and the Enquirer is not likely to embellish a story about a minor celebrity like King getting a divorce because frankly it’s not that juicy of a rumor. They’re also one of the most reliable gossip rags. King’s rep denies that he’s getting a divorce this time around, though.

Is it cold to dump your spouse right after they recover from an addiction, or is it a long time coming and more considerate of their mental state at the time? It probably depends on the relationship.

Larry King and Shawn are shown on 02/10/07. Credit: Fame Pictures

Thank God Larry King hasn’t become irrelevant. Those that claim the once great interview is now nothing but a hack are clearly misinformed – I mean he had political heavyweight Christina Aguilera on his show last night for goodness sakes! Christina had a lot of deep and original thoughts to get off her ample chest – like how important it is to vote, and how she’s getting really, really old.

Credit Christina Aguilera’s newborn son Max with getting her involved in this year’s election. “Being a new mother, it was really important for me to get excited about this election,” she told Larry King during an interview Wednesday about her involvement with Rock the Vote. This election “is such one of change and new development for our country and for the future of my son,” she added. “I want the best possibilities for him.”

Aguilera — who would not reveal which candidate she supported — told King, she registered to vote “as soon as I could” but admitted she didn’t “exercise that right until the last election. I grew up in a house where politics weren’t discussed,” she explained. “It was a hopeless situation. As a woman, that’s embarrassing that it took [me] so long [to vote] because we weren’t always given that right,” she said.

As for why other young people don’t vote, she said maybe they feel politics “doesn’t affect them” and they think it will matter to them “later on down the road. But time goes quickly,” she cautioned. “I’m already 27.”

[From Us Weekly]

27? Holy crap that’s unattractive. She’s just a big bag of dinosaur bones. I kid, I kid. I sometimes get annoyed with all the celebrities when they do the whole “get out and vote” thing because it’s generally a bunch of people who don’t seem to care about anything – except every fourth year, when that’s what they’re supposed to say.

If a celeb that’s often supporting social or charitable causes says it, I think it’s great. But when Heidi Montag and Paris Hilton tell me I should vote, I want to tell them they should go pop a Valtrex and shut up. Man I’m cranky today. Larry King always puts me in a bad mood. With that face of his. I’m going to stop now.

Here’s Christina on “Larry King Live” last night. Video thanks to RedLasso.

Larry King’s 26 years-younger wife, Shawn Southwick King, 48, has entered rehab for an addicted to painkillers. An “unnamed friend” of the talk show host says his wife is being treated for a dependence on prescription medication that she was using to treat chronic migraines:

TALKMEISTER Larry King’s stunning TV-personality wife, Shawn Southwick King, 48, has gone into rehab for addiction to painkillers. King, 74, has been married to Southwick, his sixth wife, for 10 years and they have two children together. A friend of King’s confirmed to Page Six, “Shawn is in rehab for medication issues related to her chronic migraine problem.” CNN declined to comment.

[From Page Six]

This is Page Six, who knows if this is true or if they’re softballing the news and making it seem minor out of some loyalty to King. They’ve been known to pick on people for no reason, to make shit up, and to play favorites.

I had a friend who was addicted to Oxycontin after he took it for back pain and it can really take hold of you quickly. It’s relatively easy to get it online and on the street and it causes terrible withdrawal symptoms if you quit cold turkey.

First lady candidate Cindy McCain also went to rehab for painkiller abuse back in 1990s. She has successfully beaten her addiction been drug free ever since and in 1999 told the press the story of her desperate times and the uncontrollable urges that led her to steal drugs from a nonprofit agency she ran.

When stories come out about famous people suffering addiction and real human problems it becomes a little easier for others facing similar issues to seek help. Best wishes to Mrs. King for a successful recovery.

Larry King and Shawn Southwick are shown in the header at the Clive Davis pre-Grammy party on 2/9/08 and below with their sons Chance, 11, and Cannon, 8, at the Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards on 12/21/07, thanks to PRPhotos.

I’m not sure how Larry King live is viewed across America (we don’t get it here in New Zealand), although Wiki says 46% of Americans had an unfavorable opinion of him, but I suspect that more people have that opinion of his possible replacement Ryan Seacrest.

A source from within CNN says that Seacrest, who has filled in for his friend Larry King in the past, is involved in “serious negotiations” to take over “Larry King Live” around year’s end. King told The New York Times in April 2007 that Seacrest would be his first choice to take over the show when the time came.

“He’s the classic generalist,” King told the Times. “The only thing I don’t know, and I’ve gotten to know him pretty well, is how versed he is in politics, world affairs. Does he read the paper? Is he interested in Iraq? Because if he is, he’s going to be very good.”

Another source familiar with Seacrest and his involvement on “American Idol” said that a drastic course change might be just what Seacrest needs. “He’s so serious about his career, but like anyone, he wants it to evolve. Hosting ‘Larry King’ would be perfect for him.”

MSNBC

CNN has made no official statement about Ryan’s possible employment, but MSNBC has another ‘source’ saying that this isn’t true.

This is following hot on the heels of reports that American Idol is reaching the end of it’s run. After 7 seasons on television, the show is losing viewers. While it still rates well, I suspect that people aren’t really interested. It’s not water cooler conversation anymore, people just don’t seem interested in who wins the contest now. I also think that for the winner, it is not a stepping stone for a great career like it was for early Idol winners like Kelly Clarkson – they just don’t seem to be as successful as they have been in the early seasons.

There’s no word on whether Seacrest will leave his radio show if he takes over from Larry King, but it is possible he might do both. He’ll probably just take a nap between shows.

Jenny McCarthy was on Larry King Live last night and she was very clear that she thinks her nearly six year old son, Evan, would not have suffered from autism if it wasn’t for vaccinations. She said that autism is a global epidemic, and that she and the autism community are not anti-vaccination, but that they’re anti-toxin and anti-schedule. She’s says “we’re not treating autism, we’re treating vaccine injury.”

Larry asked Jenny about the schedule and she said that back in 1987 there were 10 shots scheduled for children and today it’s 36, which is “too many too soon.” She says we need an alternate schedule, and that the mercury has not been removed from vaccines and that the shots also include aluminum, ether, and antifreeze.

MCCARTHY: I personally haven’t heard of that many people falling off the map that we needed to implement 26 new shots in this time. And isn’t it ironic, in 1983 there was 10 shots and now there’s 36 and the rise of autism happened at the same time?

And parent after parent after parent says I vaccinated my baby, they got a fever and then they stopped speaking and then became autistic.

KING: Is your link scientific or statistical?

MCCARTHY: Well, I believe that parents’ anecdotal information is science-based information. And when the entire world is screaming the same thing — doctor, I came home. He had a fever. He stopped speaking and then he became autistic. I can’t — I can see if it was just one parent saying this. But when so many — and I speak to thousands of moms every weekend and they’re all standing up and saying the same thing. It’s time to start listening to that. That is science-based information. Parents’ anecdotal is science-based information…

KING: Jenny, will you agree that some cases have nothing to do with vaccines, which makes it more puzzling?

MCCARTHY: Absolutely. You know, environmental toxins play a role. Viruses play a role. Those are all triggers. But vaccines play the largest role right now and something needs to be done. You know, testing these kids for immune issues, you know, that would help so much, changing the schedule. You know, I don’t understand — as a precautionary measure, why don’t they do this?

If everyone is screaming this and they’re so worried about parents going into offices right now telling the pediatrician j everyone is going I’m too scared to vaccinate my child. This is the new parents’ number one fear — I am afraid to vaccinate.

I am not trying to start this global non-vaccinating world. I’m trying to implement change.

[From Transcripts.CNN.com]

Jenny says that her son Evan hasn’t “recovered,” but that he no longer qualifies as autistic for special services. She compared it to being hit by a bus. You can get better but you’re never quite the same. She called him a “a wonderful example of hope and possibility for parents out there.”

They had journalist David Kirby, the author of “Evidence of Harm” on. He discussed the case of Hannah Polling, in which the “vaccine court,” a special court created by the US government to shield the pharmaceutical companies from large lawsuits, ruled that vaccines did contribute to Polling’s autism. In that case Kirby notes that Polling had an underlying mitochondrial disorder that was exacerbated by the vaccines. Kirby says, like McCarthy, he’s not anti-vaccination but thinks that the schedule should be individualized to each child. He said you could for example specifically test for the genetic defect that causes a mitochondrial dysfunction and make sure that those children, who are genetically more susceptible to autism, be given less vaccinations at once.

At the end of the show there was a panel of doctors trying to sum up the issue. Earlier they discussed the importance of vaccination and how childhood illnesses have been eradicated. The discussion got heated and McCarthy plainly said “that’s bullshit” when one doctor said vaccines have been a boon to families. She said “my son died in front of me,” and talked about how her son died for two minutes and went into cardiac arrest. She asked “are we considered acceptable losses?”

Clip of McCarthy saying “that’s bullshit!”

I clipped the rest of the show and the links are below if you would like to watch it. This is an important issue that touches so many families and I can’t imagine the heartbreak of having a child with autism. Good for Jenny for having the courage to speak out about this. There are no clear-cut answers and there needs to be more study into this, but it seems as if the pharmaceutical companies have been shielded from scrutiny due to the reasonable fear that people will stop vaccinating.

Larry read out a statement from Jim Carrey at the end of the show that “Vaccines are more a profit engine than a means of prevention. And that’s why there are so many vaccines.”

Jenny and Jim Carrey will lead a march on Washington on June 4th, and you can learn about it on GenerationRescue.org

MCCARTHY: Jim and I are going to lead a march and rally in Washington, D.C. And I’m announcing it right here on June 4th. You can go on GenerationRescue.org for more information. We will be there and we’re asking every parent that can make it there in Washington on that day, every grandma, mom, dad, to be there with us marching, rallying. You have a voice that day.

KING: Are you raising money?

MCCARTHY: Oh, no. This is a day — you know, I’ve been talking to parents across the country, thousands of them. And they’re so dying to have a voice one day. So we’re bringing the media. We’re bringing the attention, and now I’m asking every parent that’s watching this right now, come there that day and you will be heard.

KING: Where do you go online?

MCCARTHY: GenerationRescue.org.

Jenny McCarthy on Larry King Live 4/2/08, Part 1
Jenny McCarthy on Larry King Live 4/2/08, Part 2
Jenny McCarthy on Larry King Live 4/2/08, Part 3
Jenny McCarthy on Larry King Live 4/2/08, Part 4
Jenny McCarthy on Larry King Live 4/2/08, Part 5
Jenny McCarthy on Larry King Live 4/2/08, Part 6
Jenny McCarthy on Larry King Live 4/2/08, Part 7

Dr. Jan West, Kanye West’s deceased mom Donda’s plastic surgeon, made history on the Larry King show last night by being the first guest to walk off in 22 years. Larry asked his executive producer Wendy Walker toward the end of the show if a guest had ever left like that, and she said “You have been on the air now, Larry, for 22 years. And I have never seen a guest walk off… The only time I ever remember anything like this happening was one time, Vice President Gore was late and we put your children on for the first segment before he could get there.”

This was surprising to me, but Larry King is such a softball interviewer you could see how people would never get pissed off at him enough to leave. Adams delayed his appearance, and came on after the first commercial break, saying that he wanted to appear on the show, but that he would respect the wishes of the West family that he not talk about the case:

ADAMS: I — what I really want to say is I want to thank you for this opportunity. Basically, I had come here to talk about things in the press that aren’t accurate about me. But I have a tremendous amount of love and respect for the West family. And they’ve asked me not to go on. And I’ve said from the very beginning, I don’t have a side in this. They are my side.

And so I’m going to respect their wishes. And I’m going to apologize to you because I think I’m taking up your air time. But I will not be on the show and I will not discuss any of that. I’m going to honor their wishes, OK?

KING: Meaning, you won’t answer any questions about anything?

ADAMS: None. None.

[From CNN Transcript]

Adams went on to say that he would talk about what happened when the West family was comfortable with it and he ripped the microphone off and walked dramatically off stage. He didn’t get emotional or anything, but he did look and sound scared. The thing is, he was expected to at least address some of the many claims leveled against him, including multiple malpractice suits, several DUIs, the 100k in back taxes he owes, and his ex wife’s allegations that he physically assaulted her. He didn’t talk about any of that though, and just got the hell out of there, claiming he was doing it for the West family.

It’s more likely that Adams kept his mouth shut, something he hasn’t been able to do up until this point, due to a faxed letter from the West’s attorney that was received by his lawyer just prior to his scheduled appearance.

Adams’ attorney, Alan Tenenbaum, was on the show and confirmed that he did receive a fax from the West’s attorney, which came in right “as he arrived at [Larry King's] office.” He said that it involved an issue of patient privilege, which is a civil matter, not a criminal matter, and he confirmed they could be sued for violating patient confidentiality. Adams had speculated earlier to the press that Donda died from a possible painkiller overdose, a statement that clearly violates patient doctor confidentiality. The West family has not yet announced a civil suit or an intent to sue.

Larry King said that the letter also threatened to go to the California Medical Board and have Adams’ license to practice medicine taken away if he continued to speak out about Dr. West’s case.

Adams could have talked about the other claims against him without violating Dr. West’s confidentiality, but he got scared and got the hell out of there. He does have a chance to speak out about the many stories about him that have been publicized as a result of this tragic case. He gave an interview to People Magazine that will appear in their next issue.

People senior editor Galina Espinoza was on the panel of experts commenting on Adam’s bizarre behavior on the show, and said that in that interview he dismissed the cases against him as “nuisance suits.” He also said that he never became board certified, something that is recommended but not required for physicians, because he didn’t think he needed to:

ESPINOZA: The DUIs he did not talk about. He did talk about a lot of the malpractice suits, and he dismissed most of them as “nuisance suits,” with his quote. And he did actually go on to say that in at least three cases where he did agree to a default judgment against him that if he had to do it over again, he wouldn’t do it, that he was an idiot for doing so. That was his explanation…

ESPINOZA: He was not board certified and we did ask him why he wasn’t. And he said that he did in fact start the process to become board certified, but things happened in his life. He had a serious illness. He wasn’t able to complete the process.

And then he went on to say, and I’m going to read this quote to you, saying that he wasn’t bothered by the fact that he does not have this credential, saying, we have made the board a tie to a certain level of competence, which I don’t really think is true.

So clearly, he did not think it was important for him to be board certified. He thought he was perfectly qualified.

[From CNN Transcript]

This guy is going down hard and he knows it. He must have been waiting for the axe to fall for the past few years and it was incredibly irresponsible for him to continue practicing medicine and behaving like an expert on television. Watching that show, he acted and behaved like a scared guilty person, and I hope that his license is revoked and that he’s sued into the ground. It won’t bring Kanye’s mom back, but their family might have a little justice.

Dr. Donda West’s funeral was held in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma yesterday. Kanye spoke at the ceremony, saying he hoped his mom would not “rest in peace, but rest in paradise.”

Here’s the video of Jan Adams walking off Larry King, thanks to TMZ: