Monday, January 17, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

NORM: Weatherman loses job for on-air 'slip'

Joan Collins recalls longing for career in fighting crime. Tim Allen gets into the Mix at Mandalay Bay.

KTNV-TV, Channel 13, fired weekend weather anchor Rob Blair on Sunday, a day after he made an on-air racial slur about Martin Luther King Jr.

Jim Prather, vice president and general manager of KTNV, said Blair "stumbled" during a weather update at 7:55 a.m. Saturday but added that "this kind of incident is not acceptable under any circumstances, and I'm truly sorry that this event occurred."

Blair was delivering the extended forecast when he said, "For tomorrow, 60 degrees, Martin Luther Coon King Jr. Day, gonna see some temperatures in the mid-60s."

About 20 minutes later, Blair told viewers at the ABC affiliate, "Apparently I accidentally said Martin Luther Kong Jr., which I apologize about -- slip of the tongue."

He offered a full apology during Saturday's 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. newscasts.

At 6:11 p.m., co-anchor Christina Brown, who is black, announced, "Right now we want to pause for a program note. Rob?"

Blair, seated at the news desk with co-anchors Brown and Shawn Boyd, said, "On a weather report earlier this morning, I made an accidental slip of the tongue when talking about the Martin Luther King holiday, and what I said was interpreted by many viewers as highly offensive. For that I offer my deepest apology. I in no way intended to offend anyone. I'm very sorry."

Blair's dismissal punctuated an embarrassing week for local TV.

On Jan. 9, KLAS-TV, Channel 8 reporter Adrian Arambulo erroneously reported that 13-year-old Brett Hutchison had been found alive after a Mount Charleston avalanche. Anchor Colleen May asked Arambulo to clarify the report, and he reiterated that the teen was alive.

Minutes later, in a live follow-up, reporter Lindsey Patterson said the teen had not survived.

KVBC-TV, Channel 3 took a public-relations hit on the avalanche story, as well, when news reporter Alex Savidge asked police officer Chris Jones how Hutchinson's parents were taking the news of their son's death. Jones, clearly stunned by the question, walked away from the reporters.

Detective Collins?

Had Joan Collins' childhood dream worked out, she would have been a detective instead of a "Dynasty" icon.

Collins, during dinner at the Aladdin's Tremezzo restaurant over the weekend, told friend Robin Leach, "I even bought a special agent's kit and sneakily got everybody's fingerprints to catch whoever was raiding the fridge when they shouldn't have been. Mostly it was my sister (Jackie Collins)."

Collins told Leach that her Las Vegas marriage to Swedish playboy Peter Holm "was so bad I've completely erased it from my mind." She married Holm in 1985 at the Little White Wedding Chapel, site of Britney Spears' quickie wedding a year ago.

During her weekend visit, she recalled the time when she almost ended up on stage at the Sands with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis.

Lewis saw her with her feet up on the edge of the stage and kept trying to pull a mortified Collins on stage, she told her longtime assistant, Judy Bryer, who lives in The Lakes with her husband, Max.

"Sporting my usual vampy look and low-cut dress I thought myself quite the cat's meow that night, and Jerry burst my bubble."

Finally, Martin, who had recognized her, pulled Lewis back and sent "a lazy wink in my direction."

After the show, Collins' group had dinner with Martin and Lewis, and the protective side of Martin came out again. "Dean warned me, 'Don't wander too far out back from the hotel without your high-top boots on; there are rattlers out there!' " Collins said.

Sightings

Tim Allen ("Home Improvement") and Randy Couture, Ultimate Fighting light heavyweight belt holder, dining at Mix restaurant (The Hotel at Mandalay Bay) on Saturday.

The Punch Line

"The only reason I'm in Hollywood is that I don't have the moral courage to refuse the money." -- Marlon Brando

Norm Clarke can be reached at 383-0244 or norm@reviewjournal.com.