[Programming note: There's still time to vote on Al Gore's Baby Bump!]
As readers of this blog know, Puerto Rican spitfire Rita Moreno is the first person to have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy and Tony - known in entertainment circles as the "Moreno Sweep." Only nine individuals have achieved the "Moreno Sweep" and Moreno herself aced it in record time. (What's that commercial she did in the late 70s where she was identified as the winner of all four prizes? I can't remember.)
Among her prizes are two Emmys: One for a guest appearance on The Muppets; the other for a three-episode stint as hooker Rita Capkovic on The Rockford Files in 1978. I've often wondered if it bothered her to play a prostitute with the same first name - or if this was a signal to audiences that she had a racy side. (Not unlike Pamela Sue Martin, TV's Nancy Drew, who posed for Playboy in July of that very same year.)
Of course I loved Rita Moreno in West Side Story. But she was genius in The Electric Company, for which she won a Grammy.
Rita Moreno and Morgan Freeman in The Electric Company.
Damn that show was good.
Anyway until recently it looked like Al Gore would become the first former Vice President to complete the "Moreno Sweep." In the last year he bagged both an Oscar (Inconvenient Truth) and an Emmy (for Current TV). I'd already begun racking my brains trying to think of the musical role that would land him theater's most coveted prize. (Gore doesn't need to worry about the Grammy. He's bound to nail one in the spoken word category.)
Now comes word that Gore is likely skipping Broadway and heading straight to Oslo - to pick up this year's Nobel. This puts the former Veep in a class all his own: the only winner of an Oscar, Emmy and Nobel.
But here's the thing: He shouldn't skip Broadway. Jimmy Carter already has a Nobel and could very well share in an Oscar for Jonathan Demme's documentary Man From Plains. An Emmy could soon follow. (Carter has always been fiercely competitive. Pundits long ago dubbed him the Chita Rivera to Gore's Moreno.)
For Gore to secure his singular status - winner of the Oscar, Emmy, Grammy, Tony and Nobel ("The Gore Crown"?) - he needs to grab his dance shoes and head to the Great White Way.
Mo Rocca has appeared on a bunch of shows, including 'The Daily Show,' 'I Love the 80s,'...
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Al Gore: Not Just Another Rita Moreno
Posted Oct 12th 2007 9:00AM by Mo Rocca
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Mo Rocca appears on a bunch of shows, including CBS News Sunday Morning (with the indescribably wonderful Charles Osgood), The Tonight Show on NBC, and NPR's Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! He's a sometime judge on Iron Chef and was featured on Telemundo's Amore Descarado. Last year he starred on Broadway in the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. His expose "All the President's Pets" was published by Crown in 2004.
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Reader Comments ( Page 2 of 4)
16. Let's go for the gusto here...Al Gore in The Rocky Horrow Picture Show.
swampbunnyfl at 4:00PM on Oct 9th 2007
17. Let's just go all out...Al Gore in The Rocky Horrow Picture Show!
hgbunny at 4:06PM on Oct 9th 2007
18. Blayze, many kudos to the "Dem Song". Very creative!
Game Theory for Applied Economics Nerd at 4:11PM on Oct 9th 2007
19.
YO MO,
I don't know if you saw the clip pf Elizabeth Taylor on SOUP. It was great. Some one asked her if she was getting married again she bellowed NOOOOOOOOO. Then She howled like a wolf. It was so funny.
I love Joel Mc hale on that show.
marsha beckerman at 5:47PM on Oct 9th 2007
20. swampbunnyfl, so would Gore be Brad or Janet?
mo-NEEK-a at 5:53PM on Oct 9th 2007
21. Xanadu, hands down.
loring at 6:27PM on Oct 9th 2007
22. I would go with Oklahoma, that is genius idea, and Blaze that song was wonderful, may I have permission to send it to some people??
Eliza at 7:39PM on Oct 9th 2007
23. Neonyellowflame:
Thank you. That was very sweet of you. But honestly, Mo makes it very easy for me to gush about him and his posts. (Just between you and me, I think he loves the gushing.)
Blayze:
That was kick-ass!
giftedgirl at 7:25PM on Oct 9th 2007
24.
Al Gore should break new ground in theater, not try to fill someone else's shoes. (Didn't work so well in 2000, and we don't want his Tony stolen from him by Stephen Sondheim.) So why not Futurama: the Musical? Al saves Omicron Persei 8 from global climate change after Lrrr becomes addicted to ozone-consuming scale spray.
slackferno at 7:57PM on Oct 9th 2007
25. OLD CALCUTTA
Don't you want to see Gore dancing around Nekt on stage???
Who wouldn't???? (puke...gag, wretch, cough.....)
I'll bet r resident buddy from Spain (Miguel) would be first in line for tickets....He'd probably call up TicketMaster first he heard.
KrautKnabe at 8:10PM on Oct 9th 2007
26. That was a kick ass show. Even though I was born in 1984, our local networks showed that through the late eighties so I was lucky enough to watch it.
I think I'll get the DVDs. It's pretty trippy for a kid's program.
Andrew at 8:32PM on Oct 9th 2007
27. I guess Rush Limbaugh has no chance at the Nobel because he actually does tell the truth and deserve it. The nobel peace prize generaly goes to a murderer in disguise. or a lier as in Gores case. What a phony, where are all the hurricanes caused by the warming. Why is gore selling credits that he created at huge profits. that should piss of you freakin libs.
clint at 8:34PM on Oct 9th 2007
28. Thanks everyone, and yes Eliza, you may.
Blayze at 8:53PM on Oct 9th 2007
29.
FINN
Please don't sabatoge AL FROM WINNING THE TONY. If he had to dance with Ann Coulter he would go to prison after the first verse of Shall We Dance because he strangled her to shut her up.
marsha beckerman at 9:13PM on Oct 9th 2007
30. I know Marsha,
Ann Coulter was a mistake...
No, I mean literally. Her parents never intended to conceive her. It was a tragic case of too much Irish whiskey on St. Patrick's Day at the local pub followed by a wild night of witchcraft, ouiji boards, and beastiality. 9 months later... something resembling a shrieking baby monkey was born. It was later named Ann Coulter.
FINN at 10:23PM on Oct 9th 2007