It’s a shame that Gloria Allred doesn’t represent herself in court. That way, she could work with both her favorite attorney and her favorite client.
Actually, Allred does represent herself every time she calls a press conference with some aggrieved woman or another—whether it’s one of Tiger Woods’ heartsick mistresses or the maid who for nine years worked for former ebay CEO and failed California gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman, whom Allred wanted to see lose.
Now it’s the bitter ex-wife of the Staples CEO who hopes people will hear what a meanie Mitt Romney is…because Allred met with President Obama a few weeks ago and wants to see Romney lose.
And it’s so essential that we re-elect President Obama because the alternative is just unthinkable.
Nearly 20 years ago, when I was writing frequently for the so-called newspaper of record, I got an assignment to write a story about Hollywood celebrities and their pet political causes. It was a good idea. Those were the days of heady activities, with groups like Emily’s List forming to, as I was told, “take back the country”; actresses testifying in front of Congress about farm issues and alar in apples; and power players, like David Geffen and Richard Dreyfus, hiring personal political consultants.
Four things happened that stayed in my memory. The first was interviewing Jon Voight, whose pet cause was freeing Jonathan Pollard. What a mensch.
The second was laughing uncontrollably after learning that something called the Environmental Communications Office was giving its annual hero award to Mikhail Gorbachev. After all, the recently defunct Soviet leadership had left Russia and the republics in such pristine shape. Chernobyl, anybody?
The third was talking to Cybill Shepherd, who’d just come from testifying in front of a House subcommittee on abortion. I asked if she felt used by the group that had flown her in, knowing that congressmen would flock to the chamber to hear her. Indignantly, she said, “If you think that the only reason I was asked to testify on this important subject is because I’m famous, you’re naive.” Yes, I was the naive one.
Fourth was my call to Gloria Allred, who’d been recommended by a number of people in Hollywood as someone I should include. So I called her office.
“Ms. Allred, please,” I said to the receptionist.
“I’m sorry,” she said, “but she’s in an important meeting.”
“All right,” I said, “would you please tell her that Joel Engel of the New York Times is calling?”
“Hold please.”
One thousand one, one thousand two… “Hi, this is Gloria, how are you?” she said cheerily, as though we were old friends.
What we actually talked about is irrelevant, though I still sometimes laugh about her answer to a question that had nothing to do with Washington: “As I said just the other day to President William Jefferson Clinton, in my private meeting with him in the Oval Office,” blah blah blah.
A country that takes Gloria Allred seriously is not a serious country.
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Nor will it long remain a country.
Didn’t she head up the California branch of the ACLU before she went Hollywood? I seem to remember a female attorney named Allred (it was an odd name and it struck me as appropos for a left leaning outfit) at its helm in the ’80s and ’90s.
As the judge here, I’d be asking what in the hell Gory-a was thinking, bringing this crap before the court in a transparent stunt like she is.
Then I would continue the case until January of next year…
Rags, I think the Romney campaign wants this out there and done. That’s why they’re not objecting. They know that there is nothing there; the quicker Allred is proven a fool, the quicker the distraction is out of the news cycle. I think Mitt and the team want the country to be considering only the miserable excuse we have for a president right now.
Oh, I agree, steve! But you have different interests here, and the court has its own interest in protecting its docket from specious stunts, and its own integrity and the respect of the people (big deals in legal ethics, btw).
Romney has said early “nola problemo” (latin for “I’m kewl wid it”).
Other people have interests in keeping the record sealed and the players gaged, and Gory-a has a hill to climb to show good cause for reversing the order.
January, with leave to renew the adjournment sine die.
She wants to be the Anna Wintour of the legal community. A fashion statement only and sometimes a brief.
The more she opens her pie-hole, the more irrelevant she becomes. See – Jesse, Reziss We Much. Let her talk. hehe.
Whatever you do, do not get between Gloria and a TV camera.
Absolutely shameless.
A country that takes Gloria Allred seriously is not a serious country
Nah.
There is a long list of fools in public life. These folks are attracted to the public light, like a moth to a flame.
To name a few other public fools: Al Sharpton, Joe Biden, Dan Quayle, Joe Arpaio, Barry Obama, Debbie Wasserman-Shultz (x 10), John Kerry, Liz Warren, Donald Trump . .. and one and on
We have, can and always overcome the ways of the fool. HEck, Gloria Allred is at best a minor fool with almiost zero influence (less than Sharpton)
Zero influence isn’t quite right. She’s always able to get the press to show up en masse, which means she’s going to get her 15 minutes on any issue she chooses. (Anyone who’s ever called a press conference and had no one show up appreciates this.)
Then there’s Meg Whitman. The stupidity over her ex-housekeeper is frequently cited as a big reason she lost to Jerry Brown. Whitman’s “character” was pretty much all anyone talked during the campaign’s final month (2010). It ended her September surge by shifting the conversation away from economics.
The mainstream press has less influence than it used to, but it’s still worth several points at the polls. Being taken seriously by the press is therefore akin to being taken seriously by the country.
yes, i agree the electorate is dumb and easily manipulated by Allred et al. So, I guess she does have more influence than I said.
Look at MA — carpet bombing of ads saying Warren is for Women and Brown is against Women. The ads make it look like Brown is against Roe v Wade, against equal pay for women and against contraceptives for women. Totally untrue. But it is swaying the election.
Part of the reason Allred aced Whitman was ZERO push-back from Whitman.
At the time, I watched in horror as Whitman passively allowed Allred to define everything. Whitman had done nothing wrong; in fact, she was in strict compliance with California’s crazy, illegal-alien-friendly laws.
Whitman should have gone on the attack (what did she have to lose, after all?), scored points about CA’s crazy laws and rules, and in the process discredited Allred.
Instead, she relied on the traditional RINO strategy: retreat and surrender. Allred is trash, but Whitman bears no small measure of blame, herself.
Joel–Certainly Allred helped Brown vs Whitman, but this is CA, where Charles Manson would be elected statewide if he ran as a Dem. Or, might I say Moonbeam could get elected?
Brown won going away by ten pts; had it been a point or two, the Allred sideshow might have made the difference, but it didn’t.
This state is beyond belief.
In our culture, there really doesn’t appear to be any downside to being shameless.
We put our oldest daughter in acting classes at the Santa Monica Playhouse when she was little in an attempt to help her overcome her shyness.
After one play, I found myself standing next to Gloria in the courtyard as the kids came down the stairs to applause as their names were called out.
I said, “They’re adorable, aren’t they?” and she gave me a look as if to say, “You dare speak to me without be spoken to first?”
What a sourpuss.
LukeHandCool (who now realizes he should’ve said, “Hey, G-L-O-R-I-A, Gloria!! It’s me, Luke Handcool from the Times!!” … Luke wouldn’t have been so specific as to elaborate that he was from the “Santa Monica Free Good Times.”)
“What a sourpuss.”
You’re in an awfully generous mood, Luke.