Pat O'Brien Fired For Passive-Aggressive Email

Behold the power of an ill-conceived email message. For it wasn't horny, drunken voice mail or repeated bouts of excess drinking that got Pat O'Brien fired from celebrity news show the Insider. It was that pompous, undermining email where he called himself a "favorite son" of bitter poor Iowans who "want to vomit" over segments by his replacement in the anchor chair, Lara Spencer. "I'm actually not the one afraid for my job," he wrote, ominously. More »

Pat O'Brien: Only I Can Save Iowans From Vomiting

It turns out that frequently rehabbed former Insider host and overall smarmy dude Pat O'Brien is an underminer. And one remarkably lacking in self-awareness, at that! We really expect more from men with mustaches. See, Pat just got back from Iowa—he's "a little bit of a favorite son there"—and met the real people. To help them (somehow?), he decided to email this undermine-spirational message to everyone at The Insider and Entertainment Tonight: More »

Former Access Hollywood Host Accused Of Reading Cop-Slugging Colleague's Emails

Larry Mendte, the first male host of Access Hollywood, is under investigation by the FBI for reading someone else's emails. If he did it, at least he probably saw some thrilling stuff: his alleged victim is Alycia Lane, his cop-slugging, bikini-posing former colleague at Philly's CBS TV station. You can see why he'd be tempted! Early indications are that Mendte's snooping could rank right up there with Insider host Pat O'Brien's sexy drunken voicemails in the annals of gossip show host scandals. More »

Meth-head CNN Presenter Goes Into Rehab

Richard Quest, the flamboyant CNN presenter found by New York police in Central Park with crystal meth in his pocket, is to go into rehab for treatment of his drug habit, says the cable news network. This is by now the default escape route for disgraced TV personalities: they disappear from view, while appealing to the public's sympathy, a technique recently demonstrated by drunk-dialing host of The Insider, Pat O'Brien—twice. Quest also had rope around his genitals and a dildo in his boot, when stopped, making him not just a meth-head but a walking gay cliché.(Previously: watch Quest show off his rope tricks in a clip that foreshadowed his late-night embarrassment.)

What To Expect When You're Expecting The Apocalypse

[Style gay Steven "Cojo" Cojocaru and The Insider host Pat O'Brien filming a segment on Sunset Blvd yesterday; image via WENN]

Pat O'Brien No Longer Into Screaming Chicks, More Into Salty Chips

Who was that tall hobo you pitied grazing the munchie section of Gelson's the other day? Why, it was none other than recently rehabbed Pat O'Brien, fresh from his stint in rehab for what he and his rep liked to call "problems with alcohol." The bright-eyed and bushy-faced talking head was seen loading up on Pringles and M&Ms (does he have the munchies, too?). However, when a fan recognized him standing in line, he decided to bolt rather than stick around to see what was on her mind:

"At one point he was at the deli waiting for his number to be called, when a woman recognized him and started the whole "Oh my God," thing. Pat wanted no part of it and just bailed."

More »

Pat O'Brien Tumbles Down Shallow Rehab Rabbit Hole

A source tells us that Hollywood Insider host and booze hound Pat O'Brien (formerly of Access Hollywood) has chosen Los Angeles' Wonderland Center to be his latest rehab destination. The posh, Laurel Canyon house of detox is well known for hosting one Lindsay "Exhaustion" Lohan about a year ago. Though offering a fairly comprehensive treatment program, the Center also offers pampered celebrity must-haves like spa service and gourmet food. Lohan has since been to two other rehab centers, so it leads one to wonder if the drunken, mustachioed gossip monger, who has been to rehab once before himself, will be back to "sucking your tits" in no time. What these people really need is a good old state-run detox facility where you sit in a bare white room with a shivering methadone addict for three days while watching the spiders crawl by. Or, you know, functioning support systems waiting for them on the outside. Whichever. Bonus Pat O'Brien sex call/Alec Baldwin scaring children call mash-up after the jump. More »

Pat O'Brien's Dirty Messages

To mark The Insider host's return to rehab, we remember the man he once was: drunk, high, and horny. Here is one of the few remaining copies of the TV gossip monger's rambling voicemail, left for an unidentified woman, in which he suggests a threesome. (O'Brien had been linked romantically to Access Hollywood's Shaun Robinson.) O'Brien's latest story was, ironically, the death of Heath Ledger. The Insider, like many gossip shows, jumped to the conclusion that the Australian actor's death was connected to the use of illegal drugs; and was to have run video showing Ledger at a drugged-up Hollywood party, until other stars threatened to boycott the show. The sleazy Insider host, however, doesn't have such clout, or sympathy.

Riding The Voicemail With Pat O'Brien

"Hey, you got your incredibly hilarious, yet stereotype-riddled portrayal of a developmentally-disabled person in my coke and hookers! More »

Pat OBrien Televised RedemptionWatch: The Final Chapter

In what we hope will be the final installment in our tracking of Pat O'Brien's publicist-orchestrated, constantly-televised march from coked-up, horny-voicemailing boozehound to temporarily dry, Dr.Phil-approved, redeemed tabloid-TV host, a little gossipy squirrel told us that O'Brien will open his triumphant return to The Insider tonight with the words, "I'm Pat O'Brien and I'm an alcoholic." Once viewers have been properly prepared for having their living rooms converted into O'Brien's one-man AA meeting, O'Brien will then complete the transformation by reciting the Serenity Prayer. We're sure it will all be incredibly heart-warming, America will forgive him for getting caught wanting to party with hookers and blow, and O'Brien will finally return to the important work of pretending to enjoy himself while accompanying Gwyneth Paltrow on a trip to have her poodle groomed in Beverly Hills. More »

Pat O'Brien Survives Dr. Phil's Tough Love

After breaking the news that Dr. Phil would have sit-down with a recently rehabbed Pat O'Brien, we felt somewhat obligated to actually watch the show. And? Even though Dr. Phil roughed up O'Brien for a while, there were no tears, no burly man-hugs, no Dr. Phil putting on steel-toed boots and kicking in O'Brien's grill until he promised he'd never take another drink. The show did have its moments, though, which are lovingly transcribed at Dr. Phil's website: More »

Coachella: The Insider Wanders The Desert

With Andy Dick allegedly getting a time-out for Coachella, the festival was going to need another larger-than-life personality to keep things around the Indio concert grounds at an acceptable level of "going fucking crazy." Luckily, one fucking-crazy-making man was up to the challenge, even if he was sober after a well-publicized drying-out stint. Says a reader, "Pat O'Brien was at Coachella, seemingly a day out of rehab. He came over and talked to me and my friends about how 'fucking pissed' he was that he missed the Stereophonics. He even posed for a pic with me." More »

Dr. Phil To Administer Televised Tough Love To Pat O'Brien

Just like we told you days ago, naughtytalking Insider host Pat O'Brien trust-fell straight out of rehab and right into the burly, tough-lovin' arms of Oprah's in-house philosopher, Dr. Phil, just in time for sweeps: More »

Pat O'Brien Televised RedemptionWatch

Now that Pat O'Brien, America's modern master of the seductive voicemail message, has finally exited rehab, he's going to do what all disgraced celebrities with access to the sweeps airwaves do: begin a televised redemption tour to convince the viewing public that's he's free of the demons that landed him there. According to that pesky squirrel with the unicorn horn that keeps CrazyTalking in our ear, O'Brien's prime-time confessional ratings-extravaganza with Dr. Phil will air next Wednesday on CBS (gotta keep it in the Viacom family, yo), the two will hug and yell some more on Dr. Phil's daytime show Thursday, and O'Brien will return to his celeb-diddling Insider fiefdom that night. The fucking-going-crazy, drugs, and hookers, we assume, will follow shortly thereafter. But not the booze, as the Devil's party-juice is a no-no for Promises alumni trying to get back on TV. More »

Defamer CrazyTalk: Pat O'Brien, Sweeps Savior?

[Ed.note—We're bumping this post up and dragging it into today's news, for we truly hate it when CrazyTalk is lost during the afternoon commute. Also, has the NY Post heard some CrazyTalk as well?] More »

Pat O'Brien Probably Lies About His Handicap

Here's what we've learned in the days since Pat O'Brien's self-exile to rehab, which probably has nothing at all to do with the voicemails of the smooth operator eloquently seducing a female acquaintance: People who claim that they used to work with him are delighted that he's finally been served such a public comeuppance. Bask in Schadenfraude as a former colleague gleefully maligns O'Brien's golf game: More »

Breakfast With Pat O'Brien

Join us as we rub the sleep from our eyes, spread some garlic-herb cream cheese on a bagel, and spend our breakfast with updates about rehabbing Insider host/world champion sexy-talker Pat O'Brien. Here, O'Brien uses his silver tongue to charm a colleague: More »

Stuck in Rehab with Pat O'Brien: The Blog

The internet once again yields one of its ephemeral, ripped-from-the-headlines entertainments, as the I'm Stuck in Rehab With Pat O'Brien blog is born. More »

Pat O'Brien Update: Fewer F-Bombs, But Just As Disturbing

A couple of days after The Insider host/voicemail sexy-talker Pat O'Brien's fortuitously timed "trip to rehab," the gossip sheets have dug up some interesting, if violently stomach-turning, tidbits: More »

Defamer Crazy Talk: Pat O'Brien Hiding Out In Rehab? UPDATE

Apparently, Pat O'Brien is just like the rest of us and requires at least a bottle of Wild Turkey to get through an episode of The Insider, as the host has checked into rehab to battle an alcohol problem. O'Brien slipped a written statement announcing his dry vacation to the AP on Sunday and disappeared into the ether. Lest you worry that his absence will cripple the celebrity salad-tossing capabilities of the show, Lara Spencer, a woman we've never heard of, will fill in while O'Brien's away. In a word: Whew. More »