That's My Laura!
mms...@nova.com
dignity, her industrial-strength resentment burst forth again. She couldn't
last five hours on the air without responding to people who dared to "rip" her
for the way her mother chose to live her life. At about forty minutes past the
hour -- after trumpeting a World Net Daily "expose" about how two people managed
to hoodwink the American public into believing that women should have access to
safe and legal abortion -- Laura attacked -- excuse me, disagreed with --
"Shelley Herman." Laura said that Ms. Herman is getting her "13 minutes of
fame" by claiming to know something about Laura's life. Which she doesn't!
Either this "Shelley Herman" is someone other than the person identified by
Leslie Bennetts in the 1998 Vanity Fair article as "a writer who has worked with
Schlessinger and been a closest friend for many years," or Laura is lying.
So -- what is this Shelley Herman saying about Laura and/or Laura's mother? Was
she interviewed on TV or on the radio?
Lest we think that Laura is "defensive or paranoid," Laura invited us to go to
"www.nexis.com," enter Laura's name, and see all the "evil stuff" written about
her. (Someone on her staff really should tell her that not all services on the
Internet are free.)
M is for Malapert
<mms...@nova.com> wrote in message
news:uv3c1vgvi8olots3p...@4ax.com...
> Just when I thought that Laura was finally showing some self-restraint,
some
> dignity, her industrial-strength resentment burst forth again. She
couldn't
> last five hours on the air without responding to people who dared to "rip"
her
> for the way her mother chose to live her life.
Gosh. I thought people were ripping her for the way her mother's body lay
rotting for several months without it occurring to Laura that her mother
might not be on the planet any more.
> At about forty minutes past the
> hour
> Laura attacked -- excuse me, disagreed with --
> "Shelley Herman." Laura said that Ms. Herman is getting her "13 minutes
of
> fame" by claiming to know something about Laura's life.
Really???? I wonder if she's been talking to the media since Yolanda's
death.
> Which she doesn't!
> Either this "Shelley Herman" is someone other than the person identified
by
> Leslie Bennetts in the 1998 Vanity Fair article as "a writer who has
worked with
> Schlessinger and been a closest friend for many years," or Laura is lying.
Vicki Bane also interviewed Shelley Herman, who was identified as an
ex-friend at that point.
> So -- what is this Shelley Herman saying about Laura and/or Laura's
mother? Was
> she interviewed on TV or on the radio?
I have to know.
> Lest we think that Laura is "defensive or paranoid," Laura invited us to
go to
> "www.nexis.com," enter Laura's name, and see all the "evil stuff" written
about
> her. (Someone on her staff really should tell her that not all services
on the
> Internet are free.)
Especially not LexisNexis. But you can search for free, and when I looked
for news within the last 60 days on Laura Schlessinger that included the
word Herman, there was just one story in the latest People magazine.
Alone at the End; Long estranged from her daughter, Dr. Laura's mother dies
mysteriously
Every day Dr. Laura Schlessinger reaches millions with her blunt views on
morals and the virtues of loving families. But there was one person with
whom she wasn't communicating: her own mother. The controversial radio show
host had not seen or spoken with Yolanda Schlessinger, 77, in nearly two
decades. ...
Known as Lundy, the former Yolanda Ceccovini met Monroe Schlessinger, then a
lieutenant and later an engineer, in her native Italy during World War II.
They married in 1946 and divorced 31 years later. [So much for the "I was a
child of divorce" LauraLie.] Life for the couple and their daughters Laura
and Cindy Harris, now a family therapist, was apparently less than idyllic.
"I was not fortunate to grow up in a loving, close family," Laura said after
her mother's death, in one of her few public comments about her upbringing.
Still, mother and daughter were on speaking terms when Laura began her rise
from California marriage and family counselor to radio star. ...According to
one account, Laura's estrangement from her mother began in the mid-'80s.
Working as an assistant in Laura's office, Lundy refused to take a typing
class. "Finally, Laura said, 'If you don't learn to type, I can't pay
you,'" recalls Rhoda Marcovitch, a therapist and family friend who was there
that day. "Lundy said, 'If you can't pay me, I have no further use for
you.'" And that was it. Lundy never even met Deryk, Laura's 17-year-old
son with second husband Lew Bishop, a retired professor of biology at USC.
In recent years Laura claims to have lost track of Lundy altogether.
Yet Shelley Herman, a television writer who worked with Laura in the '80s,
says Laura "could have found her mother if she wanted to. Why did she have
to die alone?" She remembers Lundy as a cheerful assistant who was
inexplicably cut off by her daughter. "It's interesting that Laura is
always bad-mouthing her mother," says Herman, "but Lundy never said a word
about her to the press."
Whatever issues kept them apart will now, sadly, remain unresolved. In her
last years Lundy liked to dress in tasteful St. John outfits and
occasionally drive her Cadillac to local bridge clubs. According to someone
who spent time with her recently, she also listened to her daughter's radio
show. "It just breaks my heart to think of her so alone," says Marcovitch.
"It's everyone's nightmare to die without your loved ones."
--Alex Tresniowski --Maureen Harrington and Vickie Bane [Of Laura's
Existence] in Los Angeles
M is for Malapert
> Lest we think that Laura is "defensive or paranoid," Laura invited us to
go to
> "www.nexis.com," enter Laura's name, and see all the "evil stuff" written
about
> her. (Someone on her staff really should tell her that not all services
on the
> Internet are free.)
P.S. Then I searched again using "mother" instead of "Herman" and besides
Robert Scheer's column, the only story that looked remotely critical - that
is, other than a straight news story reporting the death - was this:
HEADLINE: DR. LAURA SCHLESSINGER SHOULD PUBLICLY KNOWN ADVICE GIVERS REVEAL
THEIR OWN PROBLEMS TO THEIR LISTENERS
BODY:
DIANE SAWYER, ABC NEWS
(Off Camera) Of course it is a terrible tragedy, what happened to her
mother. At the same time, it raises questions about Doctor Laura and her
advice, and the fact that she isn't the only pop expert to have serious
problems in her own field. For instance, dating and relationship expert
Barbara Deangelis has been married five times, and personal finance guru,
Susie Orman has struggled with debt, while Ellen Fein is author of "The
Rules For Marriage," but divorced after 16 years.
DIANE SAWYER (CONTINUED)
So, we wondered about this combination of advice given on the air, and the
real lives of those giving it. Joining us now is clinical psychologist,
Doctor Jeffrey Gardere. He also has a lot of experience in the field of
media psychology. We thank you for joining us this morning. DOCTOR JEFFREY
GARDERE, PSYCHOLOGIST
My pleasure, Diane.
DIANE SAWYER
(Off Camera) All right, when you take a look at this. First of all, let me
ask. Estrangement from a mother. And you would think someone who gives
advice about healing family values would tackle that right away. Sometimes
is estrangement the only way? Sometimes is it the only, the only thing
anybody can live with?
DOCTOR JEFFREY GARDERE
Well, I think what this brings up is a situation where Doctor Laura, we see
that she has feet of clay, as do the people such as myself who give advice.
The bottom line is, we can't tell people how to live their lives without
admitting that we have issues and that our issues form who we are, and it
influences how we give advice. And that's why we see this tough love of Dr.
Laura, because evidently this is a woman who has grown up with tough love.
DIANE SAWYER
(Off Camera) But you're saying the viewers, listeners need to know that as
you give the advice about perfect family values you need to keep reminding
them what struggles you have in your own life?
DOCTOR JEFFREY GARDERE
I think that's the most important thing. And I think Dr. Laura would better
serve her congregation, if you may, if she were to say, hey listen, I've
made these mistakes with my family. I'm the example now. I don't want to you
make these same mistakes.
DIANE SAWYER
(Off Camera) But I think, what I was asking before, is, is estrangement from
a mother automatically a failure? Is it . . .
DOCTOR JEFFREY GARDERE
No. I think it's, it, there are many people who have family conflicts. And
we become shrinks, because we have these issues and we try to work out these
issues. And I think perhaps this can make her a better person in giving
advice.
DIANE SAWYER
(Off Camera) And if you were telling all of the advice-givers on television
about the kinds of things they need to do in order to, and I guess in order
to change their range of expertise and change their approach because I know
you've talked about a lot about the fact that so many are not really
trained, what would you say is the key thing that this list of people needs
to do?
DOCTOR JEFFREY GARDERE
I think the key thing that they need to let people know is that they are not
perfect. That they have made mistakes. That, in fact, people can learn from
their mistakes. I talk about it all the time. I have a new book called "Love
Prescription," and when I talk about relationship issues, I talk about them
not only from being a trained psychologist but also from the mistakes that
I've made when I was single and when I was out there dating. And I think
people, Diane, will take that advice and learn more if you say, hey, look,
I've made these mistakes. These are the mistakes for you to avoid. I've been
there. We don't want to you go there. And you don't have to be perfect. That
you can make some of these mistakes too.
DIANE SAWYER
(Off Camera) All right, Dr. Gardere. Our thanks to you for coming in this
morning.
DOCTOR JEFFREY GARDERE
My pleasure.
Scott C. Smith
I was surprised to find that Dr. Laura was actually telling the truth in
this case. I fired up LexisNexis, did a news search on "Laura
Schlessinger," and the articles were all fairly nasty. I don't think you
could call the articles "evil," but they were not particularly positive.
M is for Malapert
"Scott C. Smith" <smith...@home.com> wrote in message
news:dXsR9.618439$QZ.91034@sccrnsc02...
> I was surprised to find that Dr. Laura was actually telling the truth in
> this case. I fired up LexisNexis, did a news search on "Laura
> Schlessinger," and the articles were all fairly nasty. I don't think you
> could call the articles "evil," but they were not particularly positive.
That's certainly good to hear. I did a search that included "mother" and
thought almost everything looked like reportage, so I didn't bother to buy
any of the stories. I don't subscribe.
Would you mind posting some of the nastier articles?
mms...@nova.com
>
><mms...@nova.com> wrote in message
>news:uv3c1vgvi8olots3p...@4ax.com...
>> Just when I thought that Laura was finally showing some self-restraint,
>some dignity, her industrial-strength resentment burst forth again. She
>couldn't last five hours on the air without responding to people who dared to "rip"
>her for the way her mother chose to live her life. [snip]
>
>I was surprised to find that Dr. Laura was actually telling the truth in
>this case. I fired up LexisNexis, did a news search on "Laura
>Schlessinger," and the articles were all fairly nasty. I don't think you
>could call the articles "evil," but they were not particularly positive.
>
Two points:
(1) You might not call the articles "evil," and I certainly don't, but Laura
does. Laura tells her listeners that the liberull media purvey "vicious
personal attacks" on her, like McDonald's peddles "Quarter Pounders." She
usually does not identify the people who are murdering her reputation, and she
almost never specifies what the lies are. This is a woman who shares with her
listeners her darkest suspicions about (for example) just how many MORE
illegitimate children the Reverend Jesse Jackson might have, but she whimpers
whenever she reads or hears an unflattering description of her own activities.
It's all right for Laura to speculate about (for example) the marriage of Bill
and Hillary Clinton, but no one may be uncharitable in an assessment of Laura's
relationship with her mother. It's terrible, says Laura, the way people keep
hitting her back. Of course, Laura makes a good living by being nasty, but she
should recognize that other people wanna get paid, too.
(2) In this case, Laura was referring to stories and commentary relating to her
mother's murder. I haven't read anything that criticizes Laura simply for
having nothing to do with her mother while her mother was alive -- and that's
what Laura says has been written and/or broadcast. It's the fact that her
mother's corpse has been rotting above ground that has elicited criticism. A
few weeks back Laura announced that she has round-the-clock security for her
"family." Clearly, up until the discovery of her mother's corpse, Laura's
mother was not included in Laura's "family." "It was by her choice," says Laura
-- who's rallying a bit late to the banner of freedom of choice. If Laura had
only decided to shrug off the inevitable charges of neglect -- and why not just
shrug them off, if they were so unfair? -- she might have saved herself further
"VPAs" simply by refraining from assaulting her mother's moldering remains over
the air and in (God save us) a press release. But no. Laura had to explain why
she was under no obligation to assure herself that her mother was still
breathing (as she says every other adult child is), and so Laura told the world
what a terrible mother she had. Her mother wanted to be abandoned, and it
served her right! Even if that's true, now is not the time to say it -- unless,
of course, Laura has decided that any publicity is good publicity, and her stock
of "VPAs" was running low. Kicking the corpse always rouses protests.
mms...@nova.com
><mms...@nova.com> wrote in message
>news:uv3c1vgvi8olots3p...@4ax.com...
>
>> Just when I thought that Laura was finally showing some self-restraint,
>some dignity, her industrial-strength resentment burst forth again. She
>couldn't last five hours on the air without responding to people who dared to "rip"
>her for the way her mother chose to live her life.
>
>Gosh. I thought people were ripping her for the way her mother's body lay
>rotting for several months without it occurring to Laura that her mother
>might not be on the planet any more.
>
You know, if only Laura had acted (and she is an actress, after all) like a
decent human being -- taken one (1) day off after learning of her mother's
death, sniffled a bit and/or expressed righteous anger when she announced her
mother's murder, stopped herself after saying that she regretted her
estrangement from her mother -- she wouldn't have invited the "vicious personal
attacks." Do you suppose she realized that?
>> At about forty minutes past the hour
-- the second hour of her show, that is --
>> Laura attacked -- excuse me, disagreed with --
>> "Shelley Herman." Laura said that Ms. Herman is getting her "13 minutes
>of fame" by claiming to know something about Laura's life.
>
Laura may have said "13 seconds."
>Really???? I wonder if she's been talking to the media since Yolanda's death.
>
>> Which she doesn't! Either this "Shelley Herman" is someone other than the person identified
>by Leslie Bennetts in the 1998 Vanity Fair article as "a writer who has worked with
>> Schlessinger and been a closest friend for many years," or Laura is lying.
>
>Vicki Bane also interviewed Shelley Herman, who was identified as an
>ex-friend at that point.
>
>> So -- what is this Shelley Herman saying about Laura and/or Laura's
>mother? Was she interviewed on TV or on the radio?
>
>I have to know.
>
>> Lest we think that Laura is "defensive or paranoid," Laura invited us to
>go to "www.nexis.com," enter Laura's name, and see all the "evil stuff" written
>about her. (Someone on her staff really should tell her that not all services
>on the Internet are free.)
>
>Especially not LexisNexis. But you can search for free, and when I looked
>for news within the last 60 days on Laura Schlessinger that included the
>word Herman, there was just one story in the latest People magazine.
>
>Alone at the End; Long estranged from her daughter, Dr. Laura's mother dies
>mysteriously
>
>Every day Dr. Laura Schlessinger reaches millions with her blunt views on
>morals and the virtues of loving families.
In Laura's defense, I have to say that Laura often specifies that the "family"
of a married adult is spouse and children, not mere parents and simply siblings.
OTOH, according to Laura, love has nothing to do with the responsibility of
adult children to check on their aged parents.
>But there was one person with whom she wasn't communicating: her own mother.
>The controversial radio show host had not seen or spoken with Yolanda Schlessinger,
>77, in nearly two decades. ...
>
>Known as Lundy, the former Yolanda Ceccovini met Monroe Schlessinger, then a
>lieutenant and later an engineer, in her native Italy during World War II.
>They married in 1946 and divorced 31 years later. [So much for the "I was a
>child of divorce" LauraLie.]
Well, I should clarify that Laura didn't exactly say that. She mentioned that
her father was dead, and that he and her mother had divorced. I thought that
was a gratuitous slap at Mumsy. After all, her parents did stay together until
both of their children (Cindy would have been 21) were "up and out."
>Life for the couple and their daughters Laura
>and Cindy Harris, now a family therapist, was apparently less than idyllic.
>"I was not fortunate to grow up in a loving, close family," Laura said after
>her mother's death, in one of her few public comments about her upbringing.
>
>Still, mother and daughter were on speaking terms when Laura began her rise
>from California marriage and family counselor to radio star. ...According to
>one account, Laura's estrangement from her mother began in the mid-'80s.
>Working as an assistant in Laura's office, Lundy refused to take a typing
>class. "Finally, Laura said, 'If you don't learn to type, I can't pay
>you,'" recalls Rhoda Marcovitch, a therapist and family friend who was there
>that day. "Lundy said, 'If you can't pay me, I have no further use for
>you.'" And that was it.
Oh-my-God, is that Doctor Rhoda Marcovitch, who is (according to Laura) the only
decent family therapist in Southern California? (Cindy must work in the Other
State, or maybe she's a quack.) Laura reveres Doctor Rhoda Marcovitch!
>Lundy never even met Deryk, Laura's 17-year-old
>son with second husband Lew Bishop, a retired professor of biology at USC.
>In recent years Laura claims to have lost track of Lundy altogether.
>
>Yet Shelley Herman, a television writer who worked with Laura in the '80s,
>says Laura "could have found her mother if she wanted to. Why did she have
>to die alone?"
Personal foul, roughing the buck-passer. You're allowed to ask, "Why did her
body have to rot for weeks?" Lundy might well have decided to live alone, and
therefore die alone, even if Laura had cared whether she lived or died.
>She remembers Lundy as a cheerful assistant who was
>inexplicably cut off by her daughter. "It's interesting that Laura is
>always bad-mouthing her mother," says Herman, "but Lundy never said a word
>about her to the press."
>
That was a clean hit.
>Whatever issues kept them apart will now, sadly, remain unresolved. In her
>last years Lundy liked to dress in tasteful St. John outfits
Aren't St. John knits the ones Laura sent her assistant/patient to the shops to
buy (and later return), so that she could copy them in her home knitting
business?
>and occasionally drive her Cadillac to local bridge clubs.
There goes the claim (by some Laura apologists) that Lundy was some sort of mad
hermit.
>According to someone who spent time with her recently, she also listened
> to her daughter's radio show. "It just breaks my heart to think of her so alone,"
> says Marcovitch. "It's everyone's nightmare to die without your loved ones."
>
Jeez, what a betrayal! Dr. Marcovitch now will be inducted into the hallowed
hall of People Who Don't Know Laura.
>--Alex Tresniowski --Maureen Harrington and Vickie Bane [Of Laura's
>Existence] in Los Angeles
>
Thanks for posting this! This article probably touched off Laura's rant about
Ms. Herman. I note that Laura has not denied -- not yet, anyway -- that Dr.
Marcovitch knows her. (Laura's sort of like Jesus Christ in reverse: once she
became notorious, she discovered that people began to claim that they knew her,
and she had to deny THEM.)
M is for Malapert
<mms...@nova.com> wrote in message
news:netd1v02npf8578eg...@4ax.com...
> >Gosh. I thought people were ripping her for the way her mother's body
lay
> >rotting for several months without it occurring to Laura that her mother
> >might not be on the planet any more.
> >
> You know, if only Laura had acted (and she is an actress, after all) like
a
> decent human being -- taken one (1) day off after learning of her mother's
> death, sniffled a bit and/or expressed righteous anger when she announced
her
> mother's murder, stopped herself after saying that she regretted her
> estrangement from her mother -- she wouldn't have invited the "vicious
personal
> attacks." Do you suppose she realized that?
You do have to wonder. We know *she* has a tin ear, so to speak, when it
comes to relations with other human beings. Like other sociopaths, she
often doesn't get interactions right - sometimes spectacularly so. Doesn't
she have a PR firm to handle this stuff? Maybe it's just Keven Bellows,
which is like asking one person to deal with a wounded rhino.
> > "Finally, Laura said, 'If you don't learn to type, I can't pay
> >you,'" recalls Rhoda Marcovitch, a therapist and family friend who was
there
> >that day. "Lundy said, 'If you can't pay me, I have no further use for
> >you.'" And that was it.
>
> Oh-my-God, is that Doctor Rhoda Marcovitch, who is (according to Laura)
the only
> decent family therapist in Southern California? (Cindy must work in the
Other
> State, or maybe she's a quack.) Laura reveres Doctor Rhoda Marcovitch!
Used to, anyway....
> >She remembers Lundy as a cheerful assistant who was
> >inexplicably cut off by her daughter. "It's interesting that Laura is
> >always bad-mouthing her mother," says Herman, "but Lundy never said a
word
> >about her to the press."
> >
> That was a clean hit.
Yeah.
> >Whatever issues kept them apart will now, sadly, remain unresolved. In
her
> >last years Lundy liked to dress in tasteful St. John outfits
>
> Aren't St. John knits the ones Laura sent her assistant/patient to the
shops to
> buy (and later return), so that she could copy them in her home knitting
> business?
Possibly - I don't have the book at hand.
> >and occasionally drive her Cadillac to local bridge clubs.
>
> There goes the claim (by some Laura apologists) that Lundy was some sort
of mad
> hermit.
See my separate post on the story from the Globe.
> >According to someone who spent time with her recently, she also listened
> > to her daughter's radio show. "It just breaks my heart to think of her
so alone,"
> > says Marcovitch. "It's everyone's nightmare to die without your loved
ones."
> >
> Jeez, what a betrayal! Dr. Marcovitch now will be inducted into the
hallowed
> hall of People Who Don't Know Laura.
That's what I'm thinking. Yet another ex-friend.
cmartin
>
>Just when I thought that Laura was finally showing some self-restraint, some
>dignity, her industrial-strength resentment burst forth again. She couldn't
>last five hours on the air without responding to people who dared to "rip" her
>for the way her mother chose to live her life. At about forty minutes past the
(snippage)
>
> Lest we think that Laura is "defensive or paranoid," Laura invited us to go to
>"www.nexis.com," enter Laura's name, and see all the "evil stuff" written about
>her.
Amazing. She's so bent that apparently it isn't occurring to her that this could
revive the Dirty Dozen photo melee again.
(Someone on her staff really should tell her that not all services on the
>Internet are free.)
Speaking of the DD, she really ought to remember that.
COL. BILL KILGORE
Despite our differences, I aways gave you credit for intelligence. But
this continuing predilection you and your cohorts have for this
defunct, ridiculous talk-show host makes one wonder - just how easy it
must be to get a job with the Denver Post.