The TV Zone

I wonder why the Friars Club occasionally invites press coverage of its legendary roasts. Honestly, what's to be gained - for either roasters or roastee? If you roast well, per the Friar's hoary tradition, you have turned the roastee into something resembling a night-stalking beast with multiple sex organs (each of gargantuan proportion) and the libido of a thousand nymphomaniacs.

If you then happen to have, as often seems to be the case, Gilbert Gottfried as one of the presenters (doesn't seem to matter if he knows the victim or not) then the whole affair turns into an orgy of scatology that would humiliate anyone within a thousand feet, including pedestrians walking down 55th Street outside who would hear the shriek and groans from within, left wondering, "who died?"

Well, apparently poor Ann Curry did during Matt Lauer's roast on Friday...

Anyway, press usually shows up to these things, laughs along, then writes a nice adulatory piece about the roastee, with the usual conditional clause that "some of the language was indeed so blue that it couldn't be included in the pages of family newspaper...."

Thank God the Village Voice isn't a family newspaper. Check out Tony Ortega's posting right here, then watch the incredibly lame and tame clip that aired on "Today" this morning. (Fair warning - the Voice post contains some pretty crude language, so you may want to skip - but it does explain that Curry reference during this morning's "Today.")

Ortega, in fact, explains why Ann Curry was "beet-red;" believe me, you would be too, and then call your lawyer...