Julie Chen has watched “A Star is Born” too many times.
At the end of the Judy Garland version, Esther– mourning the death of her husband Norman Maine– famously introduces herself to an audience by saying “My name is Mrs. Norman Maine” instead of her stage name Vicky Lester.
At the conclusion of tonight’s “Big Brother,” on CBS, Julie Chen, married to now former CBS chief Les Moonves, signed off by saying “I’m Julie Chen Moonves.”
It was a sign of solidarity with her embattled husband, who’s been ousted from CBS after many charges of sexual harassment and misconduct. Les’s ending is like a Greek tragedy, worse even than Harvey Weinstein’s. It also brought down “60 Minutes” chief Jeff Fager. It revealed a culture at CBS under Moonves that has already caused “Designing Women” producer Linda Bloodworth Thomason to reveal her awful experiences. There will be more to come.
Chen is in a precarious position. Les created “The Talk” for her to host as a competitor to “The View” on ABC. Now Chen is on what she calls a brief break while CBS figures out how they can bring her back. Her co-hosts have piled on Les like crazy. Chen obviously didn’t know (I’m guessing) the extent of Les’s shenanigans. But what happens when a guest brings up sexual harassment?
Chen is also likely in some kind of shock right now. She and Les were the King and Queen of CBS. What’s happened to them is traumatic, sort of like what happened to Nicholas and Alexandra when the tsars were overthrown. But she’s got a contract. It includes “Big Brother,” which she could still host since it’s basically vapid fun.
Julie Chen is standing by her husband. She signed off tonight’s @CBSBigBrother, for the first time ever I believe, with: “I’m Julie Chen Moonves.”
WATCH: pic.twitter.com/VPzgllZYI0
— TV MoJoe (@TVMoJoe) September 14, 2018
