Paula Poundstone has a message for all those folks who think she had something to do with the New Year鈥檚 Day 2013 fire at Wig-O-Rama.
She鈥檚 innocent.
OK, so she passed by the iconic 蜜柚直播 wig shop just hours before fire engulfed the long closed Grill dive diner next door. But that was hours earlier, just before she did a New Year鈥檚 Eve show at Fox 蜜柚直播 Theatre.
And, yes, she mocked the shop, which suffered water and smoke damage from the diner blaze. 鈥淲hat year did we use that O Rama phrase?鈥 was among her barbs.
鈥淚t was this kind of old, rundown business that was just like what it is,鈥 she recalled. 鈥淪o I kept making Wig-O-Rama jokes in my show.鈥
And then, lo and behold, the very next day her Twitter feed blew up with people pointing the finger at Poundstone for the fire.
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鈥淎ll these people were tweeting that I had something to do with it. For heaven sakes, I had nothing to do with the demise of the Wig-O-Rama!鈥 she was quick to proclaim in a phone call last week as she prepared to return to the Fox on Saturday, Nov. 18. 鈥淲hat on earth would make me do that? What was my connection? I walked by it, there was nothing else to it! I鈥檝e been blamed for the Wig-O-Rama debacle.鈥
You can be sure 鈥淲ig-O-Rama-gate鈥 will be among the random thoughts and reflections the standup brings up Saturday night.
She also might talk about the recent rash of powerful Hollywood and political figures caught up in sexual abuse/harassment/assault allegations. She has a theory why it鈥檚 happening, and a prediction: 鈥淚t鈥檚 going to be a really long several years,鈥 she said.
鈥淲hen you look at Twitter, it used to be that you feared that when you saw someone鈥檚 name, 鈥楢h, s****, they鈥檙e dead.鈥 Or they said something stupid. But now,鈥 the 57-year-old comedian said. 鈥淗ere鈥檚 what I think; it鈥檚 not a new concept the whole casting couch thing. ... The truth is it is really very widespread and not just in politics and not just in Hollywood. Part of the problem is that as a society, we send lots and lots of mixed messages. We are not in lockstep about what we want behaviorally from one another.鈥
Examples are rampant, from the antics played out in the 1978 frat-boy comedy 鈥淎nimal House鈥 to one of her favorite pop songs, Ben Harper鈥檚 2001 single 鈥淪teal My Kisses.鈥
鈥淚t鈥檚 playful and wonderful. Technically, what he鈥檚 describing, right, would be sexual harassment,鈥 she said, then delivered her punchline: 鈥淚t鈥檚 really going to bring down rock 鈥榥鈥 roll, I鈥檒l tell you that.鈥