It is ON.Photo: WireImage, Getty Images
What’s black and white and red all over? “Page Six.” That’s right, we meant RED, not “read,” because this morning the section was stained with blood, after further shots were fired in the intensifying battle between “Page Six“‘s Paula Froelich and MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann.
To recap! Last week, Froelich wrote an item in which she alleged MSNBC host Chris Matthews was talking loudly about taking over Tim Russert’s job — at Russert’s memorial service — and that he and Keith Olbermann had threatened to quit if he didn’t get it.
Olbermann fired back by calling Paula Froelich “the Worst Person in the World” on his show.
Froelich responded by telling Gawker that Olbermann was “infantile” and “narcissistic” and saying that he suffered from “a severe case of malignant self-obsession.”
Olbermann cleverly stayed quiet and allowed Froelich’s actions to speak for themselves.
But Froelich could not take the eerie silence, and today lobbed a grenade into Olbermann’s camp with an item about his behavior at the memorial service.
Olbermann was screaming into the phone … because there were no first-class train tickets ….Olbermann berated a staffer … [Olbermann] went apoplectic because there were no ketchup packets at the Kennedy Center.
It was the lede item and goes on and on, like the Tet offensive of gossip. But then, at the end, comes a perfect shot from the other side…
A rep for Olbermann snapped: “Since whatever you’re going to print is an outright lie, you can go ahead and write whatever you want. That’s on the record and applies to all future items you might make up.”
But we know the atrocities will not end here. Alas, no. Like Richard Johnson vs. Mickey Rourke, Corrine Steindler vs. Jeffrey Epstein, and Chris Wilson vs. the Face of Snarkiness Incarnate, this will go on! Further red stuff will spill, and it will not be ketchup. Till next time, Olbermann-Froelich!
UPDATE Oh, Christ. We didn’t even realize but apparently last night Olbermann issued a preemptive strike against today’s Page Six item, which was actually written by Corynne Steindler. Which means that it’s no longer one man against one woman, but army against army. We have thus amended our headline, but not anything else because it would be too complicated. MSNBC has video, if this war of words interests you further.
Keith Goes Nuts Over Ketchup [NYP]
Earlier: Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews Unite In Hatred Of Paula Froelich
