Since this is about an appearance on a tv show, I guess Cafe Society is the right place. I’m not pitting Al Sharpton, it’s just that I find this truly remarkable.
The setup: on “Rescue Me” two days ago (I finally watched the tape) the ladder company is responding to a possible heart attack in Harlem. (I’m not sure if it’s accurate that a ladder truck might be dispatched instead of an ambulance, but that was the situation on the show.) On the way, they pass right by a school bus that’s just been in a wreck; the bus is on its side, with a whole load of young schoolchildren trapped inside. They stop to rescue the children from the bus, which is leaking gasoline; there’s an explosion after they have all the kids out. (In the meantime, the chief confirmed that another unit was responding to the call in Harlem.)
So, the guys feel like heroes. However, when they turn on the news that night, there’s Al Sharpton, implying that they’re all racists for rescuing a bunch of white schoolchildren instead of ignoring the overturned bus and continuing to the call in Harlem; his voice shaking with self-righteous anger, he calls for “a full investigation”.
I’ve thought about this for a while. A lot of people who are famous for one reason or another have appeared as themselves on fictional tv shows – but usually not in scenes that cast such a bad light on them doing exactly what they’re famous for. It’s hard to escape the conclusion that Al Sharpton is such a colossal attention whore that he’ll gladly do a cameo, as himself, in a scene that makes him look like a bufoon.
Don’t really know where to go with that; just an oddity.