Blind Item- Former A-List TV Host/Actor had his career killed by a Studio Head and Big Director

James Cordon. Send that studio exec a muffin basket.

Arsenio Hall.

Jokes aside, I think you may be onto something with Arsenio. But I don't know enough about the details of his career to offer a related hypothesis.

Entertainment Lawyer made it up

R4 no. There’s a reason Arsenio went from dominating to non-existent overnight. Not everything is made up. Especially in Hollywood

Who's the costumer? Let's start with the dead person.

Coming to America was his big hit and he had that talk show. He was America's darling for a while then boom, done! I like revenge stories like this. FAFO!

The costumer is not a celeb probably.

Arsenio sued Sinead O’Connor a few years ago for saying he was who got Prince addicted to drugs.

Arsenio isn't gay?

CDAN? Two words: Timmy Shimmy.

Is Arsenio close with Eddie Murphy at all these days? They were besties once, but that was decades ago.

I can't help wondering if Murphy is "one of the biggest names in Hollywood," one of the 3 men who ended his career.

CDAN uses specific words to describe certain people sometimes. R10 Timmy is “the meme actor”. If you ever see “the meme actor” on CDAN they’re referring to Timmy. Prince Harry is “the ginger one” and Meghan is “The Alliterate One”. Most don’t have permanent nicknames but some do, Timmy being one.

R11 supposedly yes. Arsenio was only in Coming 2 America (the sequel) in 2021 because his contract for the original had it in print he would be in any sequel made in the future. So it’s either they have to include him or try to buy him out.

From one of the comments under that item…

Arsenio Hall John Landis/director (wife is a costume designer) George Lucas/studio head & Landis BFF Eddie Murphy/big star

Hall filed a $5 million defamation lawsuit in 2016 against singer Sinéad O'Connor after she claimed that Arsenio was responsible for Prince's drug habit. O'Connor also alleged that Hall had spiked her drink at a party at Eddie Murphy's house.

Arsenio might have HAD to be included in 'Coming to America' 2021 due to it being a contractual requirement for the new movie to get made, due to a talent agreement on the original 1998 movie. He had a lot of clout/leverage in 1998.

R11 - that would make sense if the dead costumer was Divine Brown.

(I know Divine was Hugh’s Tranny Hooker, not Eddie’s - but it’s a funnier name)

Wasn’t he with the same woman for years?

It’s also not like he hasn’t worked since his talk show went off the air the first time. He tried a reboot a decade or so ago and it flopped. He also won Celebrity Apprentice around the same time.

The reason his talk show originally went off the air was David Letterman moved to CBS, became a huge hit, and took Arsenio’s time slot on many stations. At the same time MTV got into the late night game with The Jon Stewart Show and took a lot of the younger audience that Hall had depended on.

Kilborn was a sexist douche to his showrunner Liz Winstead. Once he lost The Daily Show no one else would take him.

R16 that wouldn’t explain Hall vanishing after. Celebrity Apprentice and a failed reboot doesn’t sound like much over the course of 30 years time.

R17 yup, which is part of why it makes no sense some people think it’s him. His situation is very known plus he was never considered A List, never on a massive gig and never in a massive hit movie. Kilborn killed his own career by being a massive asshole, a sexist pig, and difficult to work with.

R18, I’m no or saying the BI isn’t supposed to be him, I’m saying the BI is made up, as they all tend to be from CDAN.

Who was the Scottish guy, the handsome dark-haired guy with the late night show who also hosted a game show with Hollywood in the title? He vanished--at least, in my eyes--pretty quickly once those were both done.

R20 if you feel that way why are you here? Just scroll past it then. You always do this (despite posting blinds yourself sometimes). Pot meet kettle.

ANYWAY, here is an article about Kilborn from 1997.

R21 he didn’t have a hit movie

[quote]The reason his talk show originally went off the air was David Letterman moved to CBS, became a huge hit, and took Arsenio’s time slot on many stations. At the same time MTV got into the late night game with The Jon Stewart Show and took a lot of the younger audience that Hall had depended on.

This is correct. His ratings tanked after he was no longer the only young alternative option at 11:30/10:30. He was also a terrible, fawning interviewer (even worse than Jimmy Fallon) and didn't improve; that had become tiresome.

R22, I have never posted a BI here. Anyone with a brain wouldn’t waste their time because BIs are generally so obvious and bland that they are uninteresting or so overwrought and obfuscated that they are fantasy.

Why are you so emotionally invested in a thirty year-old (as you point out) BI reposted from a second-rate gossip site anyway?

Maybe, OP is just trying to bring something interesting and kind of a mystery to DL. At least to lighten the mood and get us all talking. I like blind gossip myself, but there's just no where to get it from now, except Enty ( stupid name). I remember when Arsenio was very popular and then was suddenly gone and I always wondered why.

My memory may be a bit hazy about prehistoric times of 30 years ago but I don't recall Arsenio ever"dominating" anything. At best he was an occasional sidekick to Eddie Murphy. His talk show spoke to the hipsters like myself but was never a challenge to Carson. Fucking Paula Abdul for a while only takes you so far.

R27 his late night talk show was #1 for about 3 or 4 years

Arsenio limped along for a little while after his “heyday”. Craig Kilbourn truly disappeared overnight.

My dinosaur memory ( lol) remembers it like that ,too. Except that Arsenio just SEEMED to be going places. Then, nothing . I thought I remembered a story in Star Mag or one of those, that he was burned out and was taking time off. I do remember reading that he was demanding and hard to deal with. OT, a bit I remember Martin Lawrence being everywhere, although he didn't have a talk show, and that he'd been abusive to the Actress who played his wife. I enjoy blind gossip, but I can't find anything now. Sucks.

Looking at the old data I had forgotten Arsenio was on beyond when Carson left and Leno took over. Leno was still beating him.

Since Leno has succeeded Carson, the ratings for “The Tonight Show” and “Arsenio” have been impressive, helped in part by summer nights when late-night viewing is up and the stars are out to promote big movies.

Based on preliminary ratings for last week, “The Tonight Show” numbers appear to have rebounded from the week of June 29. Overall, “The Tonight Show” seems to have stabilized around a 5 rating, after slipping for several weeks following a phenomenal premiere when droves of viewers were sampling Leno (each rating point represents 921,000 TV households).

“Arsenio,” meanwhile, has been averaging ratings in the low 3s, showing improvement in the past several weeks with the help of such strong guests as Murphy and Madonna.

I'm totally distracted by the idea of Sinead O'Connor being at a party at Eddie Murphy's house. What an odd pair. What would they talk about?

[Quote] everyone thought he would be one of the biggest stars on the planet.

What planet OP? If it was the planet of the apes than it was Arsenio

Carny Wilson

What were the multiple "very hit shows" hosted by Arsenio?

R21 do you mean Craig Ferguson?

Dave Letterman held him down - to get him back, one of Craig's first guests on some later show as Jay Leno, Dave's arch nemesis. Letterman owned Craig's show - wouldn't let him get a sidekick or any music -which is why Craig had that horse and the talking skeleton.

He went back to Glasgow after a settlement for not getting the main gig - $12 million I think. Last I heard he was coming back to America with some show but now I forgot what it was - must have fallen through. He was so fucking talented imo - best of the bunch. Oh well, another brilliant one, Graham Norton, flopped in America years ago and went home. Hopefully Craig will rise again - if he wants to.

He's also a writer - memoir and fiction - his 2019 book was "Riding the Elephant: A Memoir of Altercations, Humiliations, Hallucinations, and Observations"

what hit movie was Carny Wilson in? R34

It’s Craig Kilborn. The hit movie was Old School.

R12, Timmy Shimmy was a CDAN “old Hollywood” blind from about 15 years ago that turned out to be ridiculously exaggerated if not downright fabricated about an actress was too ill to continue working on a film so her role was filled by a man dressed and made up to look like her. “She” won an Academy Award. Clues were dropped every day. Another forum was following the story and one of the posters there guessed it, pointed out that it was bullshit, the facts didn’t line up with the clues. Timmy was the nickname to describe the actress and Shimmy was the stand-in. CDAN was rather fun to read in those days.

Comedy Central and Graham Norton really screwed up his US launch. If his more mature self did it now on a decent timeslot, I think it would have been a total success. American celebs eat him up. He really should have had Cordon's job.

R29 Kilborn was never in a big movie. Kilborn also was never slated to be a big star. He worked for ESPN and The Daily Show.

Graham Norton’s humor is too foreign for most Americans. He was never gonna be big here.

'Foreign" Cordon and Ferguson worked in that timeslot just fine. I'll go with that rather than your anecdotal bullshit from your sample of one.

The BI just meant this person hosted a lot of shows, it doesn't say he was THE Host of a late night show. I am obviously NOT saying it is Neil Patrick Harris - but think a long the lines of someone like him who is constantly hosting something, whether it's the Emmys, Oscars or Grammys and acting. It doesn't sound like this person had a steady Hosting gig as his main job, just very popular on that circuit.

And besides, I thought I remembered the real death knell to the Arsenio Hall Show, besides declining ratings, is when he graciously host Louis Farrakhan to spout his particular brand of Antisemitic racism that didn't go over well in Hollywood.

And why is the woman called a "Customer?" Customer of what? A customer is a client. So it makes it sound like she got some service from one of them instead of supplying a service. Unless the service they provided was a sugar daddy type of one and she was attached to all three.

[quote]Anyone with a brain wouldn’t waste their time because BIs are generally so obvious and bland that they are uninteresting or so overwrought and obfuscated that they are fantasy.

It sure beats mind-numbing hours of trump motorcades on every news channel.

[quote]Arsenio Hall John Landis/director (wife is a costume designer) George Lucas/studio head & Landis BFF Eddie Murphy/big star

The timing on this BI is interesting.

Today (Aug 3) is John Landis's birthday. If it is him, it's obviously not a coincidence.

[quote]the hipsters like myself...

Bless your heart.

[quote]Kilborn was never in a big movie.

R41, see R38.

I liked Spike Feresten's weekly show.

He was cute, too.

Arsenio Hall is not correct. His talk show dropped in rating due to Letterman moving from NBC's 12:30 slot to 11:30 on CBS with The Late Show with David Letterman. Previously a large number of CBS affiliates were carrying Arsenio Hall due to Pat Sajak's show getting canceled. Hall was losing a large portion of his networks showing his show. It was the kiss of death. Leno got the Tonight Show, Letterman was going head to head, and Paramount knew it was the death of the Arsenio Hall show as UPN was failing as well. If Hall was blacklisted that bad he would have never been able to sell his show again in 2013. He really only ever got roles in movies via Murphy who's own popularity dropped as well. There is also the rumor that Hall is a closeted homosexual and has HIV which leave him out of any love triangle. He also had a son in the 90's with a woman who worked on his show, Cheryl Bonnachi which would also leave him out of the love triangle.

Ren or Stimpy.

R43 are you slow? I said his humor is very foreign, as in he has British humor. Corden and Ferguson’s humor was very American despite them not being from here. Norton’s isn’t. If you know anything about comedy (because I know who you are I can almost assure you don’t) you know American humor and British humor are typically very different.

R49 Old School was a modest hit that made $87 million worldwide. It wasn’t a big hit. It was a sleeper hit though. And Kilborn had a cameo in it. Not even a supporting role.

So my point still stands. He didn’t star in a hit movie.

R51 again, RATINGS DROPPING AND SHOW BEING CANCELED DONT ANSWER WHY HE VANISHED AFTER.

Nah, I knew you were an ignorant cunt who doesn't know demos when you used the term "foreign", R53. You can take your self-assumed authority and shove it somewhere painful.

Again: 2005 campy Graham Norton is not 2023 witty glass of wine Graham Norton, and I think he would carry Cordon's timeslot just fine without the bullshit Viacom dealt him in the last attempt.

R55 Kilborn dropped from sight due to his sexual harassment charges.

[quote] Kilborn also was never slated to be a big star. He worked for ESPN and The Daily Show.

He was the host of "SportsCenter" and "The Daily Show," two highly successful host-dependent shows. He absolutely WAS a star.

The blind wouldn't have been Craig Ferguson. While he was in a few movies, none of them were "big hits." And he's been in recovery for years, so he wouldn't have drugged up an employee.

It's not Arsenio. Everyone knows he flames from space and has had an "interesting" relationship with Eddie.

What about Conan?

R21, that was Craig Ferguson,

I can't stand Graham Norton. Every other word out of his mouth is "emmm."

Cordon was never a sensation in his timeslot. The reason he's gone is because CBS was hemorraging cash keeping that damn show on the air.

Ferguson talked through every interview to the point the guest was asked, if lucky, one question. He always seemed bored and didn't care if the guest was contractually obliged to plug their latest project. He could be like Letterman in that respect where no one was going to make him do something he did not want to do.

Remember when Letterman was supposed to interview the actor who played him in the Leno vs Letterman Tongiht Show film (HBO?) He intentionally ran long throughout the show so they ran out of time. No interview, no re-booking. He won.

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

[uote] Ferguson talked through every interview to the point the guest was asked, if lucky, one question

Are you high? I liked him precisely because he never did that.

Kilborn dated a costume designer named Cherry Alayra, and she was his long-term GF, but she’s still alive, I believe.

[quote]Kilborn killed his own career by being a massive asshole, a sexist pig, and difficult to work with.

But think of all the men in the industry who (at the time) were also like that, but kept their careers. I think maybe Kilborn crossed a certain line and someone powerful pulled the receipts on him, and got the women to go public.

The daily show was on MTV? That is news!

Richard Dawson

R67 The poster above wasn't suggesting The Daily Show was on MTV.

They were talking about Jon's pre-Daily Show show on MTV.

[quote]...because his contract for the original had it in print he would be in any sequel made in the future.

Odd. I guess an insecure actor could have that added to their contract. The typical sequel clause is that the actor is obligated to appear in any sequel that could be made at a later date. It's something they live in fear of in Hollywood. I'm sure Joaquin was ravaged with excitement about Joker II.

From what I’ve read the sequel couldn’t even get made unless he was in it or they had to buy him out of the contract. R70 insecure? You mean smart.

R64, no I'm not high. Go back ad watch his celebrity interviews. He intentionally asks inane, irrelevant and off-topic questions in order to fill up the segment. The celeb never gets a chance to plug their project.

Greg Kinnear

Good one, R73! He had his own show and Talk Soup and was in some hit movies and... Poof. Gone faster than a Madonna movie at the cineplex!

I was just thinking it might be Greg Kinnear ^^^ He tanked really fast.

Arsenio Hall has long been rumored to be a drug connection to the stars, much like Eva Longoria.

Sinead may have been right. Again.

Can’t see Arsenio Hall as a ladykiller, literally or figuratively. And he always seemed a total sycophant of Eddie’s.

I thought of Greg Kinnear too but he's still working quite regularly even if it's in lower-profile stuff.

I forgot how Greg is good looking.

Greg's career shit the bed when he went right wing.

I took a look at an old clip of Talk Soup and then it dawned on me: the freaks on the various talk shows the program makes fun of are the origins of the MAGA movement.

So a bit of a shot in the dark but what about Mike Meyers?

Kinnear was so cute and funny (albeit in a smirky fratboy way) back in the day.

But I always found him incredibly bland as an actor, and there was a sameness to all of his performances. (Almost nothing about the overrated AS GOOD AS IT GETS holds up very well over time, including the other lead performances.)

I know nothing of his political beliefs. Can anyone advise?

Wasn't kinnear doing the kirk Cameron Jesus circuit recently?

Maybe accompanied by Chris tucker......

Somewhat off topic but Enty for years referred to the meme actor, Chalamet, as closeted, said he had orgies with other men, got blow jobs in parking lots, etc. Suddenly, at the same time meme has two major studio movies coming out, he’s fucking women all over the place according to Enty. Payoff?

You don't have to copy and paste every article in CDAN, OP, you tool.

Blind Item - What attention starved lazyass troll with no imagination creates a new thread every day, sometimes twice daily, by copy-pasting a deadly dull blind item?

Shakira 🙏🙏🙏

I don’t think it’s Greg Kinnear. Enty would have mentioned his awards/nominations. Also I believe he was in a few quite popular movies.

(Also because I don’t want it to be him…even if he is a fundie freak now)

R39 in the early days of the blind, the man-dressed-as-woman WAS the star, not just the stand-in.

It turned out to be Alice Brady, btw.

CDN….what’s the democrat pedo angle in this one.

R81 I don't believe Mike Myers was ever a TV host but he fits the bill otherwise and he's an absolute bastard. Tales of his cruelty are legendary. Toward his own family too. Total asshole (and I have inside knowledge).

[quote]Enty would have mentioned his awards/nominations.

For what? Talk Soup?

Nominated for a Supporting actor Oscar for As Good As It Gets

Tom Petty talks some shit.

I'm pretty sure it's Craig Kilborn. But it's weird to think anyone still cares about him enough to write a BI about him.

Greg Kinnear has always given me an ick vibe.

I have no clue who this is. The only costume designer who died at a youngish age beside the recent fentanyl death designer was Bill Murray’s ex wife, Jennifer Butler. No cause of death given and well liked.

As improbable as it seems I thought of Kinnear too. I just can't imagine him doing srugs but he certainly was a TV Host and an actor and he worked a lot and then he vanished.

I think this is someone who was more known as a host than an actor, unlike Greg Kinnear

OMG! How did they ever find out Alex Trebek was addicted to Crystal Meth!?????

Greg Kinnear received a supporting actor Oscar nod for As Good As It Gets. If it was him it would say Oscar winner/nominee.

Some of the people you all are mentioning had very long careers

I’ve barely heard of Craig Kilbourne.

Craig Ferguson was in Coming Back To America?

^^^ He played the cab driver