Five or six years ago, I remember reading an article in the original iteration of the Libertas film blog with the phrase “Assholing yourself out of the business,” a colorful description for what happens when an actor or actress’s ego and personality become so toxic, no one wants to work with them on the set, and they simply no longer get work. I forget which actor or actress the post at Libertas originally applied to, but I can think of a few people whose careers have vanished over the past decade and who have stories of extremely dysfunctional behavior — even by Hollywood standards — associated with them.
Malignant narcissism isn’t just associated with the movie industry of course, which is why that phrase also has applicability in other regions of show business. Which is why, as Jim Treacher writes, “Keith Olbermann can’t find another job, you guys:”
Once upon a time, the definition of chutzpah was the guy on trial for killing his parents, pleading the mercy of the court on the grounds that he was an orphan. Now we have a new definition: Keith Olbermann demanding a huge pile of cash to treat the first-degree burns he suffered while burning his last bridge.
Keith Olbermann has settled his $50 million lawsuit with Current TV, bringing an end to the almost year-long legal dispute over the outspoken host’s dismissal from the liberal news network.
The terms of the settlement, which was reported earlier this week, were not released. But two sources familiar with the negotiations now tell POLITICO that during the mediation stage, Olbermann’s legal representatives cited his inability to get a job at another network — a move one source close to the negotiations interpreted as an effort to gain sympathy for Olbermann.
“One of the cards his people played was hardship,” the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told POLITICO. “He spent last fall talking to all the major networks, and he couldn’t get a job. The idea was, this could be the last money he ever earned.”
If so, this post by Newsbusters’ Matthew Sheffield really twists the rhetorical knife: “Keith Olbermann Settles Lawsuit With Al Gore, Gets Just 10 Percent of Original Contract:”
Keith Olbermann, the whiney, deranged former MSNBC anchor has settled a lawsuit he had filed against his former employer Current TV, taking home far less than he had been asking for.
According to the New York Post, Olbermann and attorneys representing the former owners of Current TV, which was sold to the Qatari-government-owned Al Jazeera network earlier this year, reached a deal to give him a $5 million payout instead of the $50 million he had sued for.
“While we’re always glad to see another lawsuit not clogging the courts up, this one sure would have been entertaining had it been allowed to continue,” Matthew writes. “Of course, there’s always the next time Keith Olbermann gets fired.”
Any bets on where Keith goes next?
Flashback:
If @keitholbermann is looking for a news organization with more credibility than @msnbc, we’d love to have him at The Onion
— The Onion (@TheOnion) January 26, 2011
Unfortunately, the Onion has gone rather Olbermannesque itself in recent weeks.
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