It has been recently revealed that Regis Philbin has decided to follow Larry King into retirement. This supposedly follows a decision by his producers to cut his salary if he decided to stay on. Regis took that as a slap in the face and walked. Someone who knows a thing or two about face slaps Regis' ex partner Kathy Lee Gifford.Regis & Kathy Lee started out as a local New York morning chat show. They quickly became the biggest deal in their market. Then the show got syndicated and went national. They rest of the nation decided they liked the pair as much as New York, and their friendly animosity routine took them to TV stardom.That's when things started taking a bad turn for Kathy.
She got involved in some scandals - like her husband getting caught taking a hooker to a hotel room. Kathy carried on like she had the perfect marriage (and sort of originated the Elizabeth Hasselback routine, you know "I couldn't decide whether to decorate my new living room in pink or dusty rose, so I let hubby decide. I think we're gonna have an NFL theme! I should've asked Angie Harmon for advice instead."). So the cheating kid of deflated the whole Stepford Wife image. Things only got worse when Kath was linked to some kind of New York sweat shop. Her name became mud. So Regis cut her loose. Those are the times when you find out who your friends are.
Kathy had good reason to remember that friendship too. As Regis broke in the newer younger Kathy Lee, in the form of soap opera actress Kelly Ripa, Lee's career went into a downward spiral. A sitcom she'd planned fell through. Some musicals she'd written never got anywhere near Broadway. Oh yeah, and she did an album that went nowhere. Eventually she had to take work as and entertainment corespondent with Pat O Brien's show. Now once did Regis ever lend his support to the woman who helped him make it to the top, and that had Kathy Lee telling anyone who would listen that "Regis betrayed me!"
The people she was telling were notables like Martha Stewart. Kathy confided to Stewart that she would've loved to have been invited back to the show, perhaps on some kind of regular guest host ticket. Lee went on to tell Stewart that it would only happen "when hell freezes over". What set that off was Regis' New Years Eve gig with FOX back in 05. Kathy was hoping to get picked up for that, but Regis once again went with a younger woman -weather girl Jillian Barberie. That brought the bad blood, which had been simmering for awhile, to the boil.
Kathy is boiling again. It's not that she expects any help from Regis. She's found her way back onto daytime TV, with her Today Show gig opposite Hoda Koth. It's Regis retirement plans that have her hot under the collar. Now that Regis has some extra time on his hands he's decided to write his memoirs, for fun and profit. That has Kathy nervous. She and Regis had plenty of fights behind the scenes, and since Regis doesn't share Gifford's ideas of loyalty, she's afraid that the old boy will spill the beans. In fact she's terrified that he's gonna vilify her in his new book so that he can come off looking good - or simply to settle old scores. Anyway with Gifford only recently climbing back into the mainstream media, a smear job couldn't come at a worse time; and that has her reminding everyone off how Regis gave her the shaft.
