One of the final bastions for American male media power, the television late night talk show, has truly been breached. A 34 year old foul mouthed, sassy blonde has been taking on some of the late night television stalwarts like David Letterman and Jay Leno, winning over viewers with a diet rich in celebrity gossip that has been marinated in aspic and Handler’s acerbic wit.
Chelsea Lately, the celebrity skewering, irreverent late night show of Handler’s had steadily been climbing up the ratings since the show first came on the air almost two years ago on the small cable network E! Entertainment Television. Although the 600,000 nightly viewers are at this point just a fraction of what Letterman and Leno garner, she attracts a predominantly female and much younger audience which makes her a favorite of advertisers. This has caused E! to commit to broadcasting Handler’s show through 2012.
The show Chelsea Lately is a concoction of cleverly pitched celebrity gossip of mainly D and C list celebrities like the Olsen twins, Kim Kardashian, Tori Spelling and Paris Hilton, overlaid with the acid tongued disembowelment Handler does on them. W Magazine called the show “ironic deconstructing of everything passing today for celebrity.” When the news surfaced that the cyclist Lance Armstrong was dating the rail thin Ashely Olsen, Handler quipped, this must be serious. Lance gave Ashely a Livestrong bracelet, She uses it as a belt.
There is a powerful frisson on Chelsea Lately from an unsettling combination due to Handler’s classic all American, blonde, blue eyed good looks, Chelsea was a beauty pageant finalist for Miss New Jersey and turned an offer down to appear nude in Playboy, along with her sharp tongue and focus on alcohol, sex as well as her breasts which are prominently displayed. When asked what Handler thought of competing versus the likes of Letterman and Leno, Chelsea answered with, I’ve got two extremely meaty breasts. I won’t let them hold me back.
Heather McDonald, a comedian who appears on Handler’s show quite often said, she is king of hot, drunk blondes. All this time they have been wandering the earth without a leader. That is until Chelsea came onto the scene with her sassy attitude, hair and boobs.
Handler’s show only veers slightly from late night talk show rigid templates. Just like Leno and Letterman, Handler opens her show with a short comic monologue and then settles into a three guest panel discussion about the day’s pressing celebrity issues. In the show’s final segment rapid fire interviews with the lesser celebrities needing some publicity enough to subject themselves to the provocative style of Handler’s.
Maybe the strangest aspect of the show is Handler’s sidekick, Chuy Bravo, a diminutive Mexican who also doubles as the personal assistant for Chelsea. Handler jokes that the path to stardom in Hollywood for Chuy was very arduous and long, mostly because it takes Chuy twice as long as most people to get anywhere.
Chelsea Lately’s success has also given a boost to other career outlets for Handler. She is a stand up comedian as well and has performed at Carnegie Hall in New York to sell out crowds. She is also an author of two best selling books. My Horizontal Life: A Collection of One Night Stands, is the memoir of her dating life fueled by alcohol. Her second book, Are You There, Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea, is an essay collection that has been adapted recently for a television series.
In her comedy act and books, Handler riffs about her existential confusion. The youngest of six kids, she was raised in an upper middle class Jewish New Jersey household by her Jewish father and Mormon mother. When Chelsea was 19 she went to Hollywood. However she quickly gave up on that after realizing how demeaning and humiliating auditions were. You have to read the lines of other people, Handler says.
Despite the fact that Handler has a hit show, clearly she has bigger ambitions and chafes obviously at how ludicrous and vacuous the material is that she gets paid for. Handler said recently, in a few years I’m sure I will want to move on to do something more high brow. When it comes to celebrity there’s only so much to say.
