Actor Rob Schneider, the previous “Saturday Night Live” star and outspoken supporter of President-elect Donald Trump, desires the billionaire proprietor of the Los Angeles Instances to fund a chat present to rival “The View” that might attraction to conservatives, based on a report.
The “Deuce Bigelow, Male Gigolo” star met with Dr. Patrick Quickly-Shiong on the newspaper’s El Segundo places of work final month to pitch him on the concept, Oliver Darcy reported in his Standing e-newsletter.
Schneider was joined by Cheryl Hines, the “Curb Your Enthusiasm” star who’s married to Robert F. Kennedy Jr, Trump’s nominee to run the Division of Well being and Human Providers, the report added.
Quickly-Shiong — who blocked the paper from endorsing Kamala Harris — invited the pair as a result of he needed to offer them a tour of the newsroom in addition to to focus on the newspaper’s video capabilities, Standing reported.
It was through the tour that Schneider reportedly pitched Quickly-Shiong on making a conservative various to ABC’s lefty gabfest that includes Pleasure Behar, Whoopi Goldberg and Sunny Hostin.
A spokesperson for Schneider confirmed that the comic met with Quickly-Shiong.
“Rob did have a wonderful meeting with Mr. Soon-Shiong and liked the new direction the LA Times is taking,” the rep stated.
The spokesperson declined to say whether or not the 2 mentioned teaming up on a present.
The Submit has sought remark from the LA Instances and Hines.
Based on Standing, the sight of Schneider, Hines — an avowed liberal — and Quickly-Shiong strolling by the Instances places of work had staffers “bewildered.”
When rumors unfold contained in the newsroom that the Instances could possibly be concerned in partnering with Schneider, some journalists grew “understandably alarmed by the notion,” Darcy wrote in Standing.
Schneider’s purported pitch comes after The Submit reported completely that executives at ABC mother or father firm Disney had been in “panic mode” to search out conservative voices to steadiness the largely anti-Trump opinions expressed on the present following the election.
Final month, Schneider advised Fox Information that he was launching a ladies’s speak present for his new media firm, “‘No Apologies Media,” that might function an alternative choice to “The View.”
“It will be the opposite because this will be entertaining. It’ll be funny,” he stated.
Schneider has not been shy about expressing his approval of Quickly-Shiong, who angered hundreds of his readers in addition to a number of of his editorial board members and newsroom staffers together with his choice to kill the endorsement for Harris simply week earlier than the Nov. 5 election.
On his X account, Schneider wrote final month: “Guess what?! It’s OKAY to buy the [Los Angeles Times] again… You’ll see WHY SOON?!”
The caption was posted above a photograph wherein Schneider is seen studying a duplicate of the broadsheet.
Schneider — who has been crucial of COVID lockdown measures and vaccines — wrote a follow-up submit which learn: “Congratulations to [Soon-Shiong] for making [the Los Angeles Times] a newspaper for ALL CALIFORNIANS again! I look forward to ALL of your NEW projects!”
The submit was punctuated with an emoji of a smiling face with one eye winking.
Quickly-Shiong, the South African-born billionaire who made his fortune in drugs and biotechnology, has sought to diversify his newspaper’s editorial board by including Scott Jennings, a frequent op-ed contributor to the Instances, to the editorial board.
Final month, Darcy reported in Standing that Quickly-Shiong advised editorial board members to “take a break from writing about” Trump.
