I recall his asking the Dali Lama, “What do you think of Jesus Christ?” but I don’t think he called him a Muslim. It was New Year’s Eve, and I think King was in his cups.
And it ain’t funny, Stink Fish Pot.
Jerry Seinfeld berates Larry King for being foolish. Seinfeld seems to be overreacting a little, but Larry King was just rambling.
I mentioned on here once how irked I was when Alison Arngrim, bk4 playing Nellie Oleson on Little House on the Prairie, was interviewed about being an incest survivor. She stated she would not discuss who her assailant was (other than to say it was an older male relative and not her father) or exactly what sexual acts were committed. Larry of course asks her repeatedly who the rapist was and what sexual acts were committed, even specifically asking “Was there actual penetration?” and not once but several times after she has said “I don’t want to get that specific, let’s just say it was blatantly sexual” type responses. It was similar to the “what were you thinking when he was making love to you” question Larry Mudd referenced.
So, I just finished reading her memoir, Confessions of a Prairie Bitch: How I Survived Nellie Oleson and Learned to Love Being Hated (a very good book that I heartily recommend incidentally- it’s not just a good child star memoir, it’s a good memoir in general- she’s very funny even when discussing her childhood traumas*). In the book she identifies the rapist (her older brother, also a child actor and 6 years her senior) and discusses how the most important contribution she feels she has made was coming forward and using her minor celebrity to draw major attention to some asinine legislation in California about incest prosecution. Since the big payday in this was the Larry King show she mentions her appearance there.
Here’s the odd part: Larry actually told her before the interview “I’m going to ask you for the identity of your rapist and what happened- just keep saying you don’t want to reveal it, but I’ll probably ask it again and then you just say you don’t want to reveal it again”. To me this was weirder and more vile somehow than if he was just a crazy old fart who couldn’t stop himself from asking the questions- he had planned it!
*Example: when she told her father, a gay “publicity seeking missile”, that she was planning to go on Larry King to discuss her brother repeatedly raping her in her parents’ house and that the interview would include the completely cluelessness of her parents’ (both of them frustrated actors, though her mother at least got some famous voice over roles in cartoons), she was afraid that her father would disown her and be mortified and beg her not to do it. Instead he was delighted that his daughter was “gonna be on Larry Fucking King! Highest rated interview show on cable!”, to which she replied “to talk about your son raping your daughter in your house”, to which he replied “On Larry Fucking King! Yes!!!”- he was genuinely thrilled.