Stanley v. Heffernan v. Wentworth
The Observer stalks wacky Living It Up! talk show hostess and Stephanopoulos wife Ali Wentworth, and stumbles into a critical catfight:
[In a critic's conversaton in the Times,] Alessandra Stanley called Living It Up! "the worst daytime talk show in history" and said she d never reviewed it because "very few watch it and it s just too painful and sad."
Her interlocutor, Virginia Heffernan, chimed in that Ms. Wentworth is the wife of George Stephanopoulos.
"Why didn t that make her good at it?" said Ms. Heffernan. "Come on, what else do you need?"
After she read the exchange in The Times, Ms. Wentworth called up Ms. Stanley, who explained her comments by joking that she was a "mean writer." Then they had a civilized chat.
"She was actually incredibly nice," Ms. Wentworth said. "She was like, Good luck with everything. "
Ms. Wentworth told me that Ms. Heffernan had gone on a date with Mr. Stephanopoulos eight years ago.
"She was in love with him, and he never returned her calls," Ms. Wentworth said.
"Hmmm," Ms. Heffernan responded. "I did some secretarial work for George Stephanopoulos at Talk in 1998. Did he consider that a date?"
