(snip)
The short-fused TV host has spent the summer complaining bitterly about Franken and his book, which among other things details a series of claims O'Reilly makes about his personal and professional history. But if O'Reilly hoped to bury Franken in ridicule, he succeeded only in elevating him into the headlines.
A trademark infringement case brought by Fox in August (for using the term "fair and balanced" in the book's subtitle) not only failed in court but made Franken the most talked-about author in the nation.
And to think, he nearly resisted the impulse to call out O'Reilly during their notorious joint appearance at the Book Expo last May.
Franken had already researched and written the chapter of "Lies" detailing the Fox News host's apparent attempts to claim part of the "Inside Edition" non-existent Peabody Awards. But would he really rub the thin-skinned O'Reilly's face in it in public?
"I didn't know if I was gonna do it or not," Franken said. "I sort of came prepared, if I felt I had to."
But Franken said that minutes before they went onstage, O'Reilly stormed into the green room and confronted a publicist from Franken's publishing house, shouting about the unflattering photograph of him that appeared on a poster-sized mock-up of "Lies."
"I don't want to say she can't take care of herself, but she's like 109 pounds and he's 6-4, and he was jabbing his finger in her face screaming, 'This is what I look like! That's a doctored photo!' "
Franken said he tried to calm O'Reilly down, but his offer to use an O'Reilly-supplied photo ran afoul when the satirist couldn't resist noting that, given the book's title, "anything with your mouth open will probably work."
more…
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