Craig Ferguson

I stayed up rather late tonight and the Late Late Show was on and I was very impressed with Craig Ferguson's monologue.

He said that he was taking a break from what he typically did and was going to speak seriously to his audience. He said that he wasn't going to make any jokes about Brittany Spears because he understood what she was going through and that he just had his 15 year anniversary of his sobriety. He said that this was his mea culpa and that the media had been irresponsible as far as reporting things like Anna Nicole Smith and that "people are dying," (loosely quoted) to which the audience laughed somewhat nervously and Craig told them that he wasn't joking.

He also said that in reference to this sort of thing he felt like his comedy had been off the mark lately and that he wasn't going to make light of this situation. He encouraged people who might be having a problem with addiction (he didn't specifically direct this at Brittany but mentioned her frequently) to seek out help from people who understood what they are going through saying, "They are easy to find, they are near the beginning of the phone book."

He also described the trend in Hollywood rehab centers that portray addiction as something that can be overcome in a 28 day stint, as opposed to the truth of rehab preceeding a "lifetime of vigilance." He also said, "I don't have a drinking problem-- I could get one pretty quickly-- I have a thinking problem."

He could just be looking for another Emmy nod, but I really appreciate that he would take the time to be serious and make himself vulnerable. His wikepedia article already has the incident mentioned, as well as several other incidents where he has dropped the shield of humor to reach out to hs audience. I caved and sent a short email to the network saying that I appreciated his perspective and his honor in not mocking so easy a target. Ironically, during the break just after the monologue there was a David Letterman commercial and in it he said something about Brittany's head and the cold-- not so funny after a frank discussion of alcoholism and waking up being covered in one's own urine.

Yes I realize that I sound like I have a girlie crush on Craig, but don't worry, I'm sure as a comedian he will say something soon and put his foot in his mouth. Well, the show is over now and tonight he didn't except for maybe ogling Virginia Madsen's legs a little too much, but hey, they were nice legs.