Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Names and faces
■ Late night host Jimmy Kimmel has stepped up his feud with U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore, saying he’s open to fighting the Republican in his home state of Alabama. Kimmel made the comments in reference to a Twitter fight he had with Moore on Thursday. Moore, a former judge, is the Republican Senate candidate facing allegations of multiple incidents of sexual misconduct when he was an assistant district attorney in his
30s. The dispute began when Moore took issue with Kimmel’s show sending a comedian to crash a talk Moore was giving at a south Alabama church Wednesday night. On Thursday, Moore tweeted to Kimmel: “If you want to mock our Christian values, come down here to Alabama and do it man to man.” Kimmel replied: “Sounds great Roy — let me know when you get some Christian values and I’ll be there!” After calling D.C. and Hollywood elites “bigots,” Moore said he’d save Kimmel a seat in the front pew. “OK, Roy,” Kimmel replied, “but I’m leaving my daughters at home! P.S. — wear that cute little leather vest.” On his show Thursday night, Kimmel offered to go to Alabama to either talk about Christian values or fight for charity with the money raised going to Moore’s accusers.
■ Geraldo Rivera is apologizing for a memoir published a quarter-century ago that recounts sexual experiences he says he’s now “embarrassed” about. In a tweet Friday, Rivera, 74, now a Fox News Channel reporter, cites his “tawdry” book and what he calls the “consensual events” it recounts. He describes its tone as “distasteful” and “disrespectful.” He says he’s “profoundly sorry” to the women involved and to anyone offended by it. The book, titled Exposing Myself, was published in 1991. Rivera’s post follows a tweet on Thursday by Bette Midler renewing an allegation of being drugged and groped by Rivera and his producer colleague in the 1970s. In her tweet Thursday, Midler, 71, called for an apology from Rivera and added the harassment-solidarity hashtag “#MeToo.” Rivera responded with a tweet of his own Friday, saying that while he recalled the incident differently, “That does not change the fact that she has a right to speak out & demand an apology from me, for in the very least, publically embarrassing her all those years ago. Bette, I apologize.” There was no immediate comment from Rivera’s current employer, Fox News Channel. The network has dismissed two high-profile men — host Bill O’Reilly in April and CEO Roger Ailes in 2016 — over sexual misconduct allegations involving their behavior while at the news channel. Ailes died earlier this year.