One of the big stories yesterday was about how Kathie Lee Gifford stupidly asked actor Martin Short how his marriage was going, despite the fact that his dear wife has been deceased for nearly two years. Short was super classy about the whole thing, and didn’t even call Kathie Lee out for it on the air. He said he was married 36 years and that he was “madly in love.” A few of you said that Short’s response brought tears to your eyes. It kind of brought it home for me that love doesn’t die. It also showed what a gentleman and professional Short is, especially in comparison to Kathie Lee. I know if someone asked me about a loved one who had passed I would have blurted out immediately that they were gone. Short waited until the commercial to break the news to dimwit Kathie Lee.
In his response to the fallout from this story, Short of course remained very classy and thoughtful. He told E! News “people make mistakes and there’s no ill will intended.” He didn’t even call out Kathie Lee by name! Here’s more, thanks to E!
While the Internet is still abuzz about the mistake Kathie Lee Gifford made on Wednesday’s Today show when she asked Martin Short about his wife, who died in 2010 of ovarian cancer, the gracious star has clearly accepted her apology.
“On live television, people make mistakes. There’s no ill will intended,” Short exclusively told E! News about Gifford’s gaffe while doing press for his latest film, Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted. “It’s nice to aspire to be kind of elegant.”
[From E! Online]
I didn’t pay a lot of attention to Short prior to this, but now I’m a very big fan. What a great guy he is.
Also, you know how Kathie Lee apologized on the air and then later tweeted an apology to Short? Gossip Cop points out that the account Kathie Lee tweeted, @MartinShort, isn’t his Twitter account at all. She could have figured it out if she even bothered to visit the link for the account one time. Note to Kathie Lee: get an iPad and wiki your guests, dumbass.
Photo credit: WENN.com
*sigh*…he keeps being adorable.
Can’t stand Kathi Lee. Martin Short is awesome.
LOVE him so much.
But hey, don’t a lot of people get FIRED when making a big mistake?
Gifford looks like a nasty drunk old hen in that orange dress. Note the ugly nude shoes too…
He’s lovely. I swoon. <3
He is a true gentlemen and all around great human being. Having said that, KLG is a bumbling idiot AGAIN. Can’t watch or listen to her for any reason because doing so is known to diminish one’s IQ a few points.
I’ll say it again. She is sooooo lucky this happened with the nicest guy on the planet. Count your blessings Bitch.
PS why has Martin never hosted the Oscars, he’d be Awesome!
That’s a very good question! He’d be classy and funny, I must say. So how about it Oscar people?
ooo good call!
I agree. He was GREAT on SNL, their main draw for a while. So he’s more than proven he can ‘do it live.’ Plus, literally everybody likes him.
I’ve watched him since SCTV, and he played effeminate characters so well over the years (like in FOTB), I actually thought he was gay until I heard his wife died. Now that’s a convincing actor!
Martin Short will forever be Franc to me. I will watch those movies every time they come on tv just to watch him in that role. Armani also no make navy blue…
Good call, he would be a great host. Just saw the 3rd season of Damages – his performance as a lawyer was amazing.
Tina, Martin was supposed to appear in the opening number with Neil Patrick Harris in 2010, but had to drop out at the last moment because his father died. His wife died a few months later. 2010 was a tough year! I agree that he would be a great host.
Didn’t Elizabeth Hasselbeck do this a few years ago when interviewing Stanley Tucci? Very sad.
That’s exactly what I was thinking yesterday when I heard this story. Stanley was really nice about that too. Kathy Lee and Elizabeth should know better, but I feel like the writers of the show should get their facts straight since those women are just going off the cards given to them for the interview!
Rabid cows. Both of them.
So full of awfulness. How incredibly painful that must have been.
The people bashing Kathie Lee are kind of MISSING THE POINT of the story. Take a breath and learn something about being gracious and forgiving…you know, LIKE MARTIN SHORT DID. Sheesh.
Well Jen, we’d like to do that, but this isn’t a one time event for KLG AND it is her job to research the people she is going to interview…she’s been doing this work 25+ years now! Oh and she apologized and to the wrong twitter account…do ya think maybe she should think before she speaks/acts? It really isn’t that hard and she has a staff to support her!
So perhaps her staff messed up and she’s being gracious in not pointing fingers?
Martin Short was incredibly gracious.
Exactly. If Short is classy & gracious for letting this go, what does it say about us, complete strangers who didn’t even know his late wife, if we can’t stop gleefully carrying on about what a horrible dumbass Kathie Lee is?
1. I didn’t show off my ignorance and reveal my laziness by not doing my research, that would be her.
2. It’s incredibly disingenuous to consistently insinuate yourself into someone else’s story by being overly-familiar and through a lack of professionalism reveal that the guests and audience are just a means to an end of grabbing up affirmation and suggests that the person in the chair is more of a smiling and reflective surface–some kind of robotic complimenting device taped to a fun house mirror.
3. Everyone makes mistakes, but this is HUGE. If they’re paying her the big bucks perhaps she could do her homework and show up to work sober. There is no reason why people should feel guilty about commenting on her long, long history of using guests for self-aggrandizement. People tune in to an interview to watch the interviewee, not to watch the host hijack the segment by proving to anyone who can see that she’s BFFs with every celebrity in existence. If she wants people to believe that or even care, time to step up the competence.
Example: At some point (before the word ‘kickback’ was ever uttered and suddenly they had barely met), Kathie-Lee and Frank become friendly with former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney. He wasn’t popular at this point with us. Then whaddaya know, she’s best friends with the family, always talking about what super people they were and how Canadians were being too mean to him when his numbers were dropping and proceeded to lecture the nation on how they should be more supportive of their elected leader because they hang out all the time and he’s such a great guy and we’re not being fair to him.
Like.Anyone.Fucking.Asked.Her.
She was noticeably absent by the time his trial came around.
Remember what happened when she didn’t bother to pay any attention to her clothing line and it was revealed that it was produced by child labour? I’m not saying by any stretch that this was all her fault, or that she wasn’t deliberately deceived at some point or she was evilly cackling about it, but it’s pretty telling that she won’t even try to learn anything from her frequent dressings down for laziness, self-absorbed interviewing style and general lack of professionalism.
It makes me think of the recent case in which an interviewer was speaking to Kim Catrall about her stage turn in Private Lives and all the girl talked about was Sex In The City, and trying to get her to confirm some pretty vulgar comparisons between her character and the woman itself and if there were more films in the works. Why did she have to rely on this old crap? She didn’t do any research and didn’t even watch the play. How incredibly stupid.
This isn’t about the gentlemanly nature of Martin Short–which is admirable–this is about having a job to do and consistently not doing it very well and not taking it seriously for over 25 years. This isn’t personal and that’s exactly the point. People aren’t up in arms because she made one mistake, people are up in arms because she’s a professional disaster and can’t be bothered to show the post, audience and guests enough respect to even try to do it right. You could get more integrity from a salamander.
Unrelated: Doesn’t the Timothy Lumsden-ing of Cody make you a touch sad?
Unrelated +1: Stop singing, please.
You are so right Jen…everyone thinks Martin Short is so amazing and classy for forgiving KLG…we should all aspire to be like that…I’m sure KLG felt horrible about her mistake…if MS can forgive her, I think we all should too…(and FYI, not a KLG fan)…
He is a true class act. I used to watch so many of his movies when I was a tween and he’s always been one of my favourites. His Mad Hatter is to die for and he was the only saving grace in a movie about a prince transformed in a frog. I’m glad to see that he is such a gentleman and such an awesome person.
Wow, she tweeted to a fake account? DO YOUR FREAKING RESEARCH.
She is at least constant.
Martin Short is intelligent, eloquent, hilarious, and engaging in interviews. And I must say, from his SCTV days right up until today, he looks amazing!
I hope she doesn’t ask Liam Neeson when he is on this week how Natasha is.. can not stand her.. he utmost respect
I think Liam should start the interview with a “Kathie Lee, let me stop you there. Just as an FYI……”
Martin Short was indeed gracious. We can all aspire to be that. I don’t know where we’d all be however. Kathie Lee didn’t appear to learn from not being publicly called out on such an appalling mistake.
this is the problem I’m having, KTG doesn’t appear to be sorry at all for her gaffe, and people are making excuses for her. This is a bad, bad thing. When will people be accountable for what they say? ESPECIALLY, when they are supposed to be journalists?? Please do not excuse KLG poor behaviour. Doesn’t it make is worse that Mr. Short was so generous?
I’ve always loved him, but even if I hadn’t I would love him now. His forgiveness and graciousness is incredible. I’ve always detested her, but even if I hadn’t I would detest her now. Her ignorance and insensitivity is incredible.
Truly classy.
@ CB. I have always been a fan. Clifford is one of my all time favorites. Everytime I hear he is going to be interviewed, I make sure that I watch, he is quite entertaining and I support any project that he is in. Martin Short has always been a pro and a gentleman so this was not a surprise at all. I am just glad that more people are going to be paying attention to him. Also, Dreamworks needs to send him a big check for this great press.
I remember she had a role in that very cheesy-awesome Disney original movie back in the day ‘Model Behavior.’ Justin Timberlake was just so laughable in that..anyway, KLG was the worst part. I was about 13 and was like, who is this fake a$$ woman? Eww.
Check out Martin Short on “Damages.” I think it’s season 3. He’s also a great dramatic actor in addition to his comedic chops.
Whatever, she should be demoted or something. sheesh. what else does she do but pontificate daily, she could also i dunno research?
What a class act. I’m all for seeing him host the oscars! #MartinShortOscars2013
KL needs to stop trying to be a blonde, it washes her out – when it’s short, curly, and chestnut she looks pretty cute
Aww, good old Hamilton boy. He was never my absolute fave on SCTV — that spot in my heart is reserved for Catherine O’Hara — but he has won me over with this. Class act.
What about Jackie Rogers Jr.? That character was so unsettling and deleriously nutzoid that you couldn’t help but want him to win that election.
I always dreamed of a Jackie Rogers Jr. and Lola Heatherton duet, but I never got one.
I love ’em all, but John was the man behind Dr. Tongue and Johnny LaRue. Watching The Schemnge Brothers ride a parade float up the street of my hometown, watching his Teutonic-flavoured Michael Jackson covers–almost too beautiful.
I love you for throwing out these names. That Jackie Rogers campaign was one of the nuttiest things they did. Their 90 minute shows rivaled SNL for weirdness.
My family and I still reference the Shmenges. The Polish hall near me sells cabbage rolls from time to time, and we can’t go by it without thanking Mrs. Vilviachki. 😉
Martin short is an A-list gem and Kathie Lee is a silly, harmless gaffe machine. I am sure she was mortified.
“wiki your guests, dumbass.” i completely agree. what a phony, washed up, has been moron she is.
that’s what happens when you drink all morning on the air and then try to interview someone.
let that be a lesson to us all.
pretty much… i don’t know how arrogant and washed up somebody can be to act so reckless and unprofessional. why doesn’t she simply retire and leave her place to somebody who is more eager and will take the job seriously. ugh it’s like she doesn’t want to do it anymore, but won’t lose her paycheck and attention either.
My already high regard for this man has only been enhanced by the way that he has handled this situation.Not only did he not finch when Kathy Lee talked about his deceased wife as if she were still alive but he forgave her for her mistake when other reporters questioned him about it afterwards.
Reading this reminds me again how much I like Martin Short and how much I despise Kathie Lee. She is just a waste of air.
Funny side note, my Gyno looks like Martin Short.
“Funny side note, my Gyno looks like Martin Short. ”
Good lord. lol. I would die!
Tell me about it! Ever since I had this realisation, I have had to fight the giggles. My doctor is great though; at least he isn’t like Ed Grimley! 😉
Wow that took alot of class on his part. Don’t know if I would had been as gracious. I can’t believe she didn’t do a simple wiki on him. It’d have taken probably 5 mins to read.