Wednesday, June 27, 2007

The Beatles "Love" Larry King

Last night’s Larry King interview with Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison was amazing. They were at the Mirage in Las Vegas celebrating the one-year anniversary of Cirque du Soleil's Beatles show, Love. The interview was great.

Larry has that annoying “Stop interrupting my questions with your answers” attitude. He asks things like, “Do you ever just want to pinch yourself when you wake up in the morning thinking, I’m a Beatle?” and as a follow up, “Tell me about John’s death.”

Larry King asks Ringo, how is life? To which Ringo answers, "Life is great."
How's the wife? "Great!"
And gorgeous. "She’s gorgeous and she's great."

Then Larry immediately turns to Sir Paul: And Paul, how are you adjusting to what was tumultuous times? (Referring to Paul’s divorce.)
"I'm okay, thank you Larry, thank you for asking," with just a touch of irony that cracks Ringo up. "I'm doing surprisingly well."
Larry: I mean that had to be rough. "It is currently rough, it is very rough, but I don't talk about it and that helps."
Larry, who’s been through a few tumultuous times himself, takes the hint: But life's good aside from that? "Life is good, life's good, life is wonderful. And with friends like these, who needs life?"

They remained cheerfully cocky and occasionally cynical toward Larry, just like they always have treated the press. Especially when Larry called Ringo, George. Paul mocked Larry like crazy, until Ringo told Paul, "Tell the man what he wants to know."

Then there was this odd moment:

Larry, bringing Yoko and Olivia back on: We're going to bring out the widows.
Ringo: The Widow Cranky.

Which I believe is some totally obscure reference to an old old old British pantomime. Regardless of where the remark came from, it could have been seen as completely inappropriate. Yoko had commented earlier that one of the things that first impressed her with the Beatles was their humor, and that other composers had always struck her as so serious, but the Beatles were constantly clowning. Putting your foot in your mouth probably just goes with the job.

But some of the interview they took quite sincerely:

Larry asks about whether or not George’s death had been a surprise (which was a typically lame question since he suffered with cancer for a while). Paul begins to talk about his last visit with George. As he tells the story, he takes Ringo’s hand quite tenderly and says how he held George’s hand, just like this, how this was a guy he’d known since childhood and you don’t hold hands, and it is really a tremendously candid moment. To which Larry touchingly responds: “Let’s go to a commercial. And tomorrow night, Paris Hilton’s first interview since her release from jail!” He says to the lads, “You’ve heard of her.” And Paul and Ringo just stare dumbfounded.

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