Penn State`s Child Sex Abuse Outrage; Kim Kardashian Strikes Back at Her Publicist
A.J. HAMMER, HLN HOST: Big news breaking tonight on SHOWBIZ TONIGHT - controversy about Penn State`s child sex abuse outrage.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where did that coach find his victims?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, man. Well, he created a kids charity.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you kidding me?</s>HAMMER: Saturday Night Live`s" devilish comedy about the Penn State sex abuse scandal. Our SHOWBIZ Flashpoint - is it too soon for jokes? Tonight, Kim Kardashian strikes back at her former publicist who claims she staged her love life for the TV cameras.</s>HAMMER: She said, "Let me go to a ring store, act as if I`m walking out and Reggie Bush is proposing to me."</s>HAMMER: Tonight, Kim`s big legal counterattack. Our SHOWBIZ Flashpoint, is Kim just making things worse? SHOWBIZ breaks Regis news. Regis Philbin begins his last week ever on "Live with Regis and Kelly." Tonight, Nick Lachey breaks news to SHOWBIZ TONIGHT about possibly replacing Reg.</s>NICK LACHEY, REALITY SHOW STAR: You know what? It`s -</s>HAMMER: TV`s most provocative entertainment news show breaks news right now.</s>JASON SUDEIKIS, COMEDIAN: So where did the coach find his victims?</s>SETH MYERS, COMEDIAN: Oh, man, well, he created a kids charity.</s>SUDEIKIS: Are you kidding me? What in my hometown are you talking about? Are you hearing this? Are you hearing this? Oh, you know what -</s>HAMMER: Yes, sure, it got lots of laughs. Tonight, SHOWBIZ TONIGHT has got to ask, was it too soon to joke about this? Joining me tonight from the State College in Pennsylvania, Jean Casarez, who is a correspondent for "In Session" on our sister network, Tru TV. Jean, to be perfectly clear here, "SNL" was not making fun of what happened to the children who were sexually abused. The show was really trying to drive home how despicable Jerry Sandusky is if he did commit these terrible crimes. But it was done against the backdrop of a lot of laughter. Let`s watch a bit more.</s>SUDEIKIS: You know who I feel bad for? Joe Paterno. You know, to have evil like that in your midst and not even know about it.</s>MYERS: Oh -</s>SUDEIKIS: Not another oh. I hate the oh`s. What`s going on?</s>MYERS: It turns out the abuse was initially reported to Joe Paterno.</s>SUDEIKIS: OK. Who went straight to the police, yes?</s>MYERS: No.</s>SUDEIKIS: Ah! Come on. Are you serious? Come on. Joe Pa. Joe Pa. A cover-up? This is college football, not the Catholic Church. Oh, I`m sorry that it happened or that I reminded of you of it?</s>HAMMER: Jean, I know you`re right there at Penn State. I imagine nobody is laughing there on the campus, so here`s our SHOWBIZ Flashpoint - was it too soon for "SNL" to make fun of the Penn State abuse scandal? What do you think?</s>JEAN CASAREZ, CORRESPONDENT, "IN SESSION": Well, you know, being right here in the center of all of it, I`ll tell you, the students at Penn State - they don`t like the attention. They don`t like the media here. They don`t want any significance to their university and they`re really concerned with Joe Pa, the coach that is legendary, just out and out being fired, Joe Paterno. That seems to be their focus, not the alleged sexual molestation of young boys.</s>HAMMER: So it`s hard to imagine how they are feeling, first with all of the media attention over the last couple weeks. And now "Saturday Night Live," an iconic show, featuring them in this sketch. And I can tell you, the passion over the scandal and the "SNL" skit spilled right over on to our SHOWBIZ TONIGHT Facebook page today. We were flooded with comments. I want to get to a couple. Jenny V. writing, "Too soon. The victims were just babies. Their lives are forever changed. I don`t think it would ever be the right time for jokes." Stephon M. who tells us he liked the sketch, writing, "If you saw the sketch, you saw that it was basically saying how horrific the situation was, so bad that even the devil himself wouldn`t take credit for it and they did it with humor." Now, clearly, Jean, people are divided over this. The sex abuse scandal has just struck such a universal chord, hasn`t it?</s>CASAREZ: And the news keeps breaking. I mean, today, the Second Mile, the CEO, is voluntarily resigning. That, of course, is the charity organization that Jerry Sandusky founded in 1977. The governor of the state said today at a high school not far from here that he would have had a larger bail for Jerry Sandusky. And the students, for them, it`s just a day in classes.</s>HAMMER: All right. Jean Casarez, thank you so much. It cannot be overstated how much of this scandal has turned so many lives upside down and is devastating the Penn State college football team as well. In fact, today, we learned advertisers are actually pulling commercials from Penn State games on TV as this whole thing rocks the sports world. With me tonight in New York, Adrienne Maloof, the co-owner of a major sports franchise, of course, NBA Sacramento Kings. Adrienne is here with her husband, Dr. Paul Nassif. They both star, of course, in the hit reality show, "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills." Good to see you both. I appreciate you being here. And Adrienne, I`m very curious to get your take on this. We see what`s going on at Penn State. We see how this scandal has ripped this team apart and their franchise, really, virtually overnight. What went through your mind when you heard all about this?</s>ADRIENNE MALOOF, CO-OWNER, SACRAMENTO KINGS: First and foremost, such a horrible, horrible situation. I have three little boys. I can`t imagine how horrific this must be for these innocent children. So I think that being a mother, and being a sports owner, this is absolutely uncalled for. And, you know -</s>HAMMER: It`s tough to talk about.</s>MALOOF: Yes.</s>HAMMER: I mean, I find this - at the dinner table, we start talking about it because it`s the hot-button issue of the moment, yet we have difficulty finding the words. Dr. Paul, you know, we`re seeing all this collateral damage. We said, as we learned today, they`re losing advertising. The team is going down the tubes because of the incredible actions of these people who were so stupid. How do you react to this?</s>DR. PAUL NASSIF, REALITY TV STAR, "THE REAL HOUSEWIVES OF BEVERLY HILLS": Well, I mean, picture if you`re sitting there, and let`s say - Joe Paterno is a great coach. However, he really made a serious mistake. He ruined his career. I mean, if you`re sitting there and someone walks up to you and says, "A 10-year- old boy is being sodomized," what are you going to do? The first you want to do is stop it, call the police, do whatever you can. Stop it yourself. That`s ridiculous.</s>HAMMER: I don`t understand how people don`t get it. Let`s talk about your show, "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills." Now, of course, the newest episode aired tonight. Just a short time ago we got to see a very tense moment when the housewives confronted Taylor Armstrong about claims her husband, Russell, had abused her. And as we know, Russell committed suicide this past August. All of this made for a very uncomfortable conversation between the housewives. Let`s watch what happened.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We`re all protecting you.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We all protected you.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: About my marriage?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What you told us about your marriage.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How could somebody live with somebody that is so horrific?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If you can`t be my friend, just please don`t be my enemy.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We don`t say that he hit you. We don`t say that, but now we said it.</s>HAMMER: Wow. Well, Taylor and Russell`s troubled marriage, as we know, has been a running story line. What we also know that since Russell`s suicide, a lot of people have criticized the show for bringing up Russell and Taylor`s problems, saying, you know what? All of that should have been cut out of the show after his suicide. Adrienne, do you think - you and I never had this conversation. Do you think that criticism is fair, especially now that the season is wearing on and we`re all getting to see this?</s>MALOOF: I actually think that bravo did the right thing and continued to air the show. People want to see Russell and what happened along the way, so they want to know, they want to see the face behind the story. And, again, it`s not reality TV that`s to blame. It just happened on reality television.</s>HAMMER: OK. And you`re saying you think Bravo did the right thing. Dr. Paul, what`s your take? Because you have a different perspective, a husband on the show, with your point of view on this. A lot of people said the whole thing should have been canceled. The season shouldn`t have gone on at all. What do you make of that?</s>NASSIF: Well, you know, I absolutely disagree. First of all, I don`t feel hat the show caused any of this. And every time that we would see Russell, always positive how great things were, how everything was - actually the show was helping him financially. I mean, behind the scenes, obviously, there were numerous problems, numerous financial - possibly some other issues that none of us know about. And I think that Bravo did the right thing by showing this is reality and this has happened. But I don`t feel it`s from the show at all.</s>HAMMER: OK. Fair enough. Well, there`s more big news breaking in the reality world outside of your show. This surrounds, who else, the lovely Kim Kardashian. Now, SHOWBIZ TONIGHT confirmed today Kim is launching a legal war against a former man in her life. It is not her soon to be ex-husband, Kris Humphries. She`s unleashing her attorney against a guy named Jonathan Jackson. Now, he claims to be her former publicist. Jackson has been saying wild things about Kim as he tries to sell a tell-all book. And he has said things, among other things, that he and Kim cooked up a fake engagement to her then-boyfriend, Reggie Bush. Now, Kim has said she`s had enough. Today, her attorney told SHOWBIZ TONIGHT that Jackson was never Kim`s official publicist. She barely remembers him. Kim`s going to court, looking for an injunction to shut him up altogether and she wants a $200,000 judgment against Jackson for violating a confidentiality agreement. I can certainly understand why she`d want that. Look, I know if somebody goes after you, the immediate urge is to fight back. But I`m thinking, by going to war with this guy so publicly, Kim is giving him, I don`t know, another day or two or more of headlines. This is our SHOWBIZ Flashpoint - is Kim just making things worse? Adrienne, what do you think?</s>MALOOF: I think he needs to be held accountable. I can`t imagine my publicist doing something so disgraceful.</s>HAMMER: And, again, she`s saying, "I don`t remember this guy and he wasn`t really my publicist".</s>MALOOF: And your publicist, you`re supposed to rely on and trust. So I think actually making a point of the situation, I commend her for doing that.</s>HAMMER: Adrienne, Dr. Paul, great to have you both here. Thank you so much.</s>NASSIF: Thanks for having us.</s>MALOOF: Thank you. Tonight, brand-new photos of Jennifer Lopez with a much younger guy. Has J-Lo rebounded after her split from Marc Anthony? What`s going on here? Also, Kat Von D`s astounding new cheating claims against Sandra Bullock`s ex, Jesse James. Kat is saying Jesse cheated on her with nearly 20 women. But you know, should she really be surprised? SHOWBIZ breaks big Regis news tonight with Nick Lachey. Regis Philbin says good-bye to "Live" this week. Does Nick want the job?</s>TEXT: Rihanna to perform on "The X Factor" results show. Oprah Winfrey gets choked up while receiving humanitarian Oscar.</s>OPRAH WINFREY, MEDIA MOGUL: It`s unimaginable that I would be standing before you voted by the board of governors.