"Smoking Gun" TV airs its second special this week (Wednesday, 9:30 p.m., Court TV) and does what the Web site that spawned the show does best — embarrasses celebrities.
Founders Bill Bastone and Daniel Green have played "gotcha" with a lot of celebrities on their Web site thesmokinggun.com — and they're not afraid to say they've enjoyed it. Like when they embarrassed a certain big movie star a couple of years ago.
"In early 2001 there was a story in Esquire that Ben Affleck was talking about how someday he wanted to run for Congress because he wanted to give back to people, blah, blah, blah," Bastone said. "And Dan said, 'Do you think the guy votes?' And I was, like, 'Of course he votes. He has to vote.' "
So they started checking voting records. "We get an entire residential history of him, and then we find out the guy hadn't voted in 10 years, though he went on television the morning of the election and told Rosie O'Donnell, 'I'm leaving right now to go to the polls,' he never bothered to vote in the general election in 2000," Bastone said.
Before they went online with the information, they did ask Affleck for his side of the story. And they got an e-mail reply from the actor's spokesman — "the typical, here's the BS statement and you hope no one else cares about it besides these dopey Internet guys," Bastone said. The spokesman wrote that "a bureaucratic snafu" prevented the actor from voting. "And we said, 'The guy wasn't registered to vote. You can't vote if you're not registered.' "
And catching Affleck in the lie was fun for thesmokinggun.com guys.
"So when you get someone famous like that kind of running off at the mouth and then you can find the story that their PR guys would prefer they don't print, well, that's good."
FICTION, FACT, FICTION, FACT: Showtime is developing a fact-based (which, of course, means fictionalized) movie about Jayson Blair, the New York Times reporter who got fired for making up stories.
It's one of those truth-is-stranger-than-fiction stories. Or, perhaps, one of those factionalized truth is stranger than fact-based fiction stories. Or something.
I have grave doubts about the project, however. I can't imagine how they could possibly make an entertaining movie about something as boring as a newspaper.
MILLER FINDS WORK: Dennis Miller, who pretty much disappeared from television after he got fired from "Monday Night Football," is about to stage a comeback. Beginning in January, he'll host and executive produce a nightly show on cable's CNBC.
(Well, he's been guest starring on Fox's "Boston Public." But, given that show's ratings, it's pretty much like not being on TV at all.)
"With all that's going on in the world today, it's nice to have a nightly platform to air my opinions," Miller said in a prepared statement. "I'm happy to be back in the NBC family."
A member of the "Saturday Night Live" cast from 1985-91, Miller bombed in a syndicated, late-night talk show in 1992; succeeded on HBO in "Dennis Miller Live" (1994-2001); and endured two seasons of intense criticism on "MNF."
Miller's brand of humor has always been sort of an acquired taste. Ratings-starved CNBC will be happy if he can attract a relatively small but loyal following to his new show, which will be a mix of interviews, opinion pieces and rants.
The show is scheduled to premiere on Monday, Jan. 26, at 7 p.m. MST.
E-MAIL: pierce@desnews.com