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Matt Cooper and Harry Shearer

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The Century's Cringeworthiest Anchormen

By Matt Cooper
Posted Thursday, Jan. 6, 2000, at 2:29 PM ET

Harry,

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Your take on Andy Kaufman sounds right. I remember thinking watching him that he's either an incredible operator who walks off the set, after some bizarre wrestling sketch, and shouts, "Who do I have to fuck to get a donut around here?" or mentally ill. If it's the latter, then his comedy seemed just a notch less cruel than the Elephant Man. Still, not having your personal history with the guy, I'm going to go see the movie. I hope Forman does his little trick of weird cameos. In Flynt, you'll recall he had James Carville play Charles Keating's lawyer, Larry Flynt play the judge in the case, and Donna Hanover (Mrs. Rudy Giuliani) as Ruth Carter Stapleton. All were quite good, even Larry with his trademark high-pitched voice. Speaking of special effects, you were in Godzilla: What's it like working in a movie all those effects? I can imagine acting against a blue screen must be pretty hard.

I see Dan Rather's ratings are sinking, setting off buzz that he may finally get dumped. Actually, at the moment I find him--for all his "What's the frequency, Kenneth" oddities--to be the least weird of the three. Brokaw is increasingly swallowing his words, and I find his ode to the World War II generation to be tiresome. (OK, we're grateful already. But look, you got $20,000 houses, $300 college tuitions, and plenty of John Wayne movies. That ain't a bad tribute.) And we've already talked about Jennings. The best part of the New Millennium may be the end of having to listen to "The Century" on Friday nights on ABC. "Played with a leather ball, sewn with stitches, and a wooden cylindrical object called a bat, it became the American pastime ..." Ugh.

I see the Labor Department took back the OSHA regulations about safety standards at home. So much for my hitting up Time Warner for an ergonomically correct easy chair.

Don't forget: Republican debate tonight.
--Matt