Stern Sidekick Hijacks New HBO Show

Comedian Artie Lange appeared on the premiere of HBO's Joe Buck Live last night, and it sounds as if the host wishes he hadn't. Buck told USA Today he couldn't wait for Lange to finish his obscene, homophobic routine. "I thought that spending time on a treadmill felt long," said the veteran baseball announcer, who appeared helpless as the show ran off the rails. "That was like 8 or 9 minutes that turned into an eternity."

Lange, Howard Stern's radio sidekick, was supposed talk about the link between sports and celebrity, but instead he made gay jokes about Buck and Tony Romo and called Jessica Simpson a "fat chick" who looks like Chris Farley. The head of HBO Sports said he knew the network was taking a risk in booking Lange. "The public will have the last say in what they thought of Artie Lange tonight," he said.
(More Artie Lange stories.)