A Personal Note

As you know, Lomblog often highlights the foibles of the famous and powerful. Largely this is the natural outsider iconoclasm that makes me a hero to so much of Y Gen. It's also the simple fact that aside from Tommy Lee and Kim Jung Il, very few of these subjects were personal friends. Not until now have I faced the difficulty of writing about a close pal's very public crisis.



Yes, many have had a field day mocking the explicit voice mails of Insider host Pat O'Brien, formerly of Access: Hollywood. I've stayed mum, not just because I've had my own inappropriate brush-up with infamy, but because Pat is one of my oldest and dearest H-wood friends. Truly, at every difficult point in my LA existence, he's extended a helping hand and words of encouragement. Whether it was the breakup of my first marriage, the breakup of my second marriage, or my various stints in rehab, Pat was always the first one there to put an arm on my shoulder, lean in and say, "Hire a hooker, get crazy, get some coke". It was so reassuring to hear in those familiar nasal cadences that have made him America's #1 conduit of news and information absolutely no one needs. And he did it all without asking for anything in return, besides friendship and ten minutes alone with my girlfriend.

That's the kind of man Pat-O is: not an infotainer but an infogiver. Or something like that.

In addition, Pat has always been the consummate professional. No matter how mind-blown on coke, he always had it together enough to march into a studio, stand alongside the likes of Nancy O'Dell and deliver the news that "Vin Diesel is packing them in Fast And Furious at the box office" or "Tom Cruise proved this weekend that beating him at the box office is a Mission: Impossible." There hasn't been journalistic commitment like that since Walter Cronkite covered the Kennedy assassination while wiped out on ether. And while I would never endorse drug use as a creative stimulus, I certainly preferred the harder, edgier O'Brien Access to the saccharine, commercialized version hosted by Billy Bush.

That's why I'll be there to help Pat in any way I can, provided it isn't over the phone. And I encourage the rest of you to approach him with a forgiveness born of fellowship, understanding and just a smidgen "There but for the grace of DELETE go I." Remember, all of us are just one drunken escapade away from facing the ultimate punishment: an hour with Dr. Phil.