King Tuts real face

King Tut's real face

Experts reveal the young pharoah's unshrouded face in public for the first time

Members of the press surround the remains of Egypt's boy king Tutankhamun placed in a glass urn designed to protect the remains of the ancient king from humidity and other contamination brought by a constant flow of over 350 visitors a day in his tomb in the Valley of the Kings, close to Luxor, 500 kms south of Cairo. The true face of ancient Egypt's boy king Tutankhamun was revealed on Sunday to the public for the first time since he died in mysterious circumstances more than 3,000 years ago.(AFP/Cris Bouroncle)

An archaeological worker looks at the face of the linen-wrapped mummy of King Tutankhamun as he is removed from his stone sarcophagus in his underground tomb in the famed Valley of the Kings in Luxor. The true face of ancient Egypt's boy king Tutankhamun was revealed on Sunday to the public for the first time since he died in mysterious circumstances more than 3,000 years ago.(AFP/Pool/ Ben Curtis)

Egypt's antiquities chief Zahi Hawass (C) supervises the removal of the linen-wrapped mummy of King Tutankhamun from his stone sarcophagus in his underground tomb in the famed Valley of the Kings in Luxor. The true face of ancient Egypt's boy king Tutankhamun was revealed on Sunday to the public for the first time since he died in mysterious circumstances more than 3,000 years ago.(AFP/Pool/ Ben Curtis)

Egypt's antiquities chief Zahi Hawass (3rd L) supervises the removal of the lid of the sarcophagus of King Tutankhamun in his underground tomb in the famed Valley of the Kings in Luxor. The true face of ancient Egypt's boy king Tutankhamun was revealed on Sunday to the public for the first time since he died in mysterious circumstances more than 3,000 years ago.(AFP/Pool/ Ben Curtis)

The face of Pharaoh Tutankhamen is displayed in a climate-controlled case at his tomb in the Valley of the Kings, close to Luxor, 500 kilometres south of Cairo. The true face of ancient Egypt's boy king Tutankhamun was revealed on Sunday to the public for the first time since he died in mysterious circumstances more than 3,000 years ago.(AFP/Cris Bouroncle)

A photo released by the Supreme Council of Antiquities and the National Geographic Society on May 10, 2005 shows a model of King Tutankhamun made by a French team based on facial reconstructions from CT scans of King Tutankhamun' s mummy. Teams of forensic artists and scientists built models of the boy pharaoh's face based on some 1,700 high-resolution photos from CT scans of his mummy to reveal what he looked like the day he died nearly 3,300 years ago. The linen wrapped mummy of King Tut was put on public display for the first time on Sunday, Nov. 4, 2007, 85 years after the 3,000-year-old boy pharaoh's golden enshrined tomb and mummy were discovered in Luxor's famed Valley of the Kings. (AP Photo/Supreme Council of Antiquities and the National Geographic Society, HO

The feet of the mummy of boy pharaoh King Tutankhamun is seen in Luxor's Valley of the Kings November 4, 2007, as it is displayed for the first time in public in a special climate-controlled glass showcase after it was taken out of its sarcophagus. (Nasser Nuri/Reuters)

The stone sarcophagus containing the mummy of King Tutankhamun is seen in his underground tomb in the famed Valley of the Kings in Luxor November 4, 2007. (Nasser Nuri/Reuters)

Zahi Hawass, head of the High Council for Antiquities, stands next to the mummy of the boy pharaoh King Tutankhamun in Luxor's Valley of the Kings November 4, 2007. (Nasser Nuri/Reuters)

The mummy of King Tut is removed from his stone sarcophagus in his underground tomb in the famed Valley of the Kings in Luxor, Egypt Sunday, Nov. 4, 2007. The mummy of the 19-year-old pharaoh, whose life and death has captivated people for nearly a century, was placed in a climate-controlled glass box in the tomb, with only the face and feet showing under the linen covering. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, Pool)

The sarcophagus of King Tut is placed back in his underground tomb in the famed Valley of the Kings in Luxor, Egypt Sunday, Nov. 4, 2007. The mummy of the 19-year-old pharaoh, whose life and death has captivated people for nearly a century, was placed in a climate-controlled glass box in the tomb, with only the face and feet showing under the linen covering. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

A photographer photographs the face of the linen-wrapped mummy of King Tut in his new glass case in his underground tomb in the famed Valley of the Kings in Luxor, Egypt Sunday, Nov. 4, 2007. The mummy of the 19-year-old pharaoh, whose life and death has captivated people for nearly a century, was placed in a climate-controlled glass box in the tomb, with only the face and feet showing under the linen covering. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

The sarcophagus of King Tut is seen in his underground tomb in the famed Valley of the Kings in Luxor, Egypt Sunday, Nov. 4, 2007. The mummy of the 19-year-old pharaoh, whose life and death has captivated people for nearly a century, was placed in a climate-controlled glass box in the tomb, with only the face and feet showing under the linen covering. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

Egypt's antiquities chief Dr. Zahi Hawass speaks to the media near the tomb of King Tut in the famed Valley of the Kings in Luxor, Egypt Sunday, Nov. 4, 2007. The mummy of the 19-year-old pharaoh, whose life and death has captivated people for nearly a century, was placed in a climate-controlled glass box in the tomb, with only the face and feet showing under the linen covering. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

The face of the linen-wrapped mummy of King Tut is seen in his new glass case in his underground tomb in the famed Valley of the Kings in Luxor, Egypt Sunday, Nov. 4, 2007. The mummy of the 19-year-old pharaoh, whose life and death has captivated people for nearly a century, was placed in a climate-controlled glass box in the tomb, with only the face and feet showing under the linen covering. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

Zahi Hawass, head of the High Council for Antiquities, speaks to the media over the climate-controlled acrylic glass showcase containing the mummy of King Tutankhamen, after it was removed from his stone sarcophagus, in his underground tomb in the Valley of the Kings in Luxor November 4, 2007. Egypt put the mummy of the boy pharaoh Tutankhamun on display in his tomb in the Valley of the Kings on Sunday, giving visitors their first chance to see the face of a ruler who died more than 3,000 years ago. REUTERS/Ben Curtis/Pool (EGYPT)

Zahi Hawass (back, 3rd L), head of the High Council for Antiquities, supervises the removal of the mummy of King Tutankhamen from his stone sarcophagus in his underground tomb in the Valley of the Kings in Luxor November 4, 2007. Egypt put the mummy of the boy pharaoh Tutankhamun on display in his tomb in the Valley of the Kings on Sunday, giving visitors their first chance to see the face of a ruler who died more than 3,000 years ago. REUTERS/Ben Curtis/Pool (EGYPT)

"The Rock" Keeps Rolling Along

Former heavyweight champion of the world, Hasim "The Rock" Rahman.

For Hasim “The Rock” Rahman, life has never been as good as the night in 2001 when he shocked the planet, and Lennox Lewis, to win the heavyweight championship of the world.

For Rahman the sweet taste of the championship was fleeting, but on that night he was able to overcome 15-1 odds to unseat Lewis in five rounds at Johannesburg, South Africa in one of the biggest upsets in heavyweight boxing history. And although nobody knew it then, it would be three more years before Hasim Rahman would win another fight.

When he came home from South Africa after having beaten Lewis, the people of Baltimore paraded him through the streets in a long caravan of joy. He had to drive himself to the parade mind you, but when he eventually got there he was given a key to the city and he addressed throngs of supporters from the steps of city hall on a warm spring day.

Hasim Rahman had come a long way. When the good citizens of the city used to see him coming, they locked their doors. Once a teenage thug, Rahman used to inhabit the dimly lit street corners of inner city Baltimore and he controlled his turf with a simple tactic - intimidation. Before he found boxing his rap sheet of arrests included grand theft auto and drug dealing, yet few of the cases ever made it to court. A gunman shot him in the early 1990’s.

His brief championship rein was a roller coaster ride filled with a series of shrewd and conniving moves for control of his promotional rights. What immediately followed was turmoil among his confidants, a televised in-studio brawl with Lewis on ESPN that made headlines around the world when he called Lewis “gay” to his face. He turned down a $20 million contract offer from HBO, brokered by his then promoter Cedric Kushner, in favor of a duffel bag containing half a million dollars in cash given to him in the back room of a restaurant by promoter Don King.

He managed to keep Lewis’ championship belts warm for only 178 days before Lennox took them back with a right hand in the fourth round of the rematch that smashed Rahman’s chin like a cannon ball careening through the side of a pirate ship. The force of the blow sent Rahman crashing to the deck, laid out, glassy-eyed and flat on his back. The championship belts were lost the same way they were won and Hasim Rahman’s life would be changed forever. On the night that he was knocked out by Lewis he was not even on speaking terms with his trainer, Adrian Davis. A few years later he would be bankrupt.

He tried to get his boxing career and life back on track. He bounced around from trainer to trainer and moved his family to Las Vegas to get away from the old friends and the new friends that suddenly appear when you’re the heavyweight champion of the world.

His first fight after the loss to Lewis was a disaster against the ancient and creaking, yet still dangerous former champion Evander Holyfield. Rahman was outclassed by Holyfield and suffered a hematoma on his forehead (courtesy of a well-placed Holyfield headbutt) that made him look like the Elephant Man. Up next was an uninspiring draw in a rematch with David Tua in which Rahman was a bloated 260-pound version of his former self. When he finally dropped a lazy decision to the haplessly incompetent Johnny Ruiz at the end of 2003, it appeared to most observers that “The Rock’s” days as a top-10 contender were over.


Rahman was stopped in this fight against Evander Holyfield in June of 2002.

Which brings us back to the rematch in 2001 when Lewis erased all that Rahman had accomplished. Ever since then, Hasim Rahman has been fighting to get back to where he once was.

In a 2004 barnstorming tour, he put together a series of five comeback wins against increasingly better opposition and the next year he won the WBC interim heavyweight title against Monte Barrett. But in 2006, after having been anointed the full WBC champion, he was frustrated against James Toney and was lucky to escape with a draw and his title.

In August of 2006, in his new hometown of Las Vegas, Rahman would be knocked out in the twelfth and final round by Oleg Maskaev in a very close fight. If the end of his career wasn’t in 2003, most thought that at age 33 and having lost to the limited Maskaev, that this was surely the end.

But now Hasim Rahman wants you to know that he is back once again. At age 35 this is likely the last run that he will have at the heavyweight championship. Since the loss to Maskaev, he has put together three wins against non-descript opposition and on Thursday night in Reading, Pennsylvania he’ll take another step in his comeback against sometime spoiler Zuri Lawrence. The fight will be televised live on the VERSUS television network.

Rahman has always been an optimistic sort and maybe that’s why he has been able to continue on when all has seemed lost on so many fronts. He is a thick waisted man with wide, chunky shoulders and arms the circumference of most people’s legs. His hands are the size of small hams and he has forearms like bowling pins. The right side of his face bears the scar from the 500 stitches he received in 1992 when the speeding pick-up truck he was a passenger in rolled over, pinning him underneath the vehicle. The driver of the truck was killed in the accident.

He’s got a great sense of humor and a quick tongue that can fire out one liners that can double you over in laughter like a left hook to the body. Rahman looks every year of his age but he still dares to think ahead as though it was 2001 all over again.


The Champion as he was, enjoying the spoils of being on top of the world.

“Well, I feel like I’m about six months away from winning the heavyweight championship of the world,” says a cheerful Rahman, who will meet Lawrence for the North American Boxing Federation heavyweight belt. “I’m not interested in just getting a world title shot – I want the title.”

His opposition this year hasn’t exactly been a murderer’s row. Names like Taurus “The Bull” Sykes, Dicky “The Raging Bull” Ryan and Cerrone Fox, who had lost six of his last seven fights before meeting Rahman, have been his fodder.

When asked why he fights these types of fights in out of the way places like Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan and Reading, Rahman explains his master comeback plan. “These are the necessary steps I need to take toward succeeding and getting a title,” he convincingly says. “I gotta’ win the title, I don’t just want a title shot. My name could have gotten me a title shot last year. After any fight I lost I could have come right back and gotten a title shot. But I want the title, so I think I need to take these fights and stay in the gym and try to look better and better every time out and show the public that I’m serious about trying to regain the heavyweight championship and making some history.”

Thus far, the plan seems to be working. After appearing dull and uninspired in winning a close decision over Sykes in which he scaled a career high 261 pounds, Rahman has progressively weighed less and less for each fight. He was 250 when he stopped Dicky Ryan in two rounds in September and 240 in a one round blowout against the helpless Fox just last month. For Lawrence he tipped the scales at 242.

“These fights are ultimately important because without winning these fights I can never even fathom being a three-time heavyweight champion of the world,” Rahman says. “Not only do I have to win these fights, but I have to win these fights impressively.”

So far, the fights haven’t gained Rahman the publicity that he needs to get his title hopes on track. He has fought mainly off television or on tape delay, so here is his plea directly to the people.

“America, I promise you. I can punch with the left hook, the right hand, bodyshots, uppercuts. I got a great team. I got Marshall Kauffman, Steve Nelson,” he says with a slight degree of emphasis.

When asked why the people should believe in him, Rahman lays it all out on the line.

“Don’t count me out,” he says. “They’ve been counting me out from day one and that’s why it don’t bother me. They told me when I turned pro that I was a big waste of money. When I lost the title the first time they said I was a waste of money and to let me go. But my team has stayed behind me and they believe in me, and more importantly, I believe in myself. I think I can beat any one of these guys on any given day and I’ll be here to back everything I’m saying up.”

The Rock was on a roll now and they say that moss doesn’t grow on a rolling stone. He has the most dislike for Vitali Klitschko who avoided and backed out of fighting him and then suddenly retired. So the big question: Is he ready for the Klitschko brothers?

“Oh definitely, definitely,” he answered. “I would like something like that maybe early next year. I need another fight or two just to get my conditioning and my weight where it needs to be. And right now I’m on course for winning the heavyweight championship of the world. I wanna be more trim, tight, focused. I wanna’ dot all the i’s and cross all the t’s. That way I don’t have to second guess anything.”

And if he gets by Zuri Lawrence, what will be Rahman’s plans after Thursday night?

“To keep busy,” he says. “You can give me five dollars and I’ll be there. It’s not a money thing. It’s a getting’ in the ring thing. I’m like the bounty hunter. I’m coming to get everybody! Anybody got a title or anybody that got a rankin’ above me, I’m comin’ to get ya’!

“The Rock” is rollin’ again. So get out of the way.


November 2007

In a Class All His Own

"Sugar" Shane Mosley may have stepped through the ropes for the final time.

When Shane Mosley is in the room, this racket they call the fight game suddenly doesn’t seem like what Jimmy Cannon called, “the red light district of sports.” You see, “Sugar” Shane Mosley is that kind of a person, and this game that sometimes reeks like a sewer, somehow smells much sweeter when he’s around.

After losing a close and hard fought decision to Miguel Cotto Saturday night in Madison Square Garden, Shane Mosley says he might hang up his gloves and move on down the road to do something else with his life. And who could blame him? He’s been fighting since he was a child. He’s fought the very best that boxing has had to offer him and along the way he’s become a four-time world champion in three weight divisions, become a favorite of the fans and the media alike and he’s won purses that total in the millions of dollars.

His happy-go-lucky personality and gentleness almost makes you forget he has spent a lifetime beating other people up.

He’s a sure-fire first ballot hall of famer. When the day comes they’ll clear a place on the wall for the plaque with his name on it and they'll swing open the doors in Canastota to welcome him with open arms. His warm smile and infectious laugh make crowds of fight fans swarm around him whenever he’s out in public and they are naturally drawn to his friendliness and charming, boy-next-door persona. Despite all that he has achieved in his life, along with the signature wins over names like Oscar De La Hoya and Fernando Vargas, none of it has really changed Shane Mosley at all.

Of course he’s a multi-millionaire now, and an equity partner in Golden Boy Promotions, one of the most successful boxing promotional companies on the planet. But he’s still the same son of Jack and Clemmie Mosley and still very much the same young man who grew up humble in Pomona, California. He’s still very much the same unassuming guy who worked the night shift at K-Mart stocking shelves and who used to like tinkering around under the hood of his Grand Am in the driveway of the family home.

Ask him, even now, to autograph a picture of himself and you’ll see him act like it’s the first time he’s ever done it.

“Ohhh, I like that one of myself, that one’s my favorite,” is what you might hear him purr. And there’s not a hint of conceit in his voice. It’s as if he can’t believe that somebody would ask for his autograph or corral him to pose for a picture. And every time a fan points their camera his way he’ll smile right into the lens, flash that wide, bright smile of his and he’ll make you feel as though he’s known you forever.

He could have cried sour grapes on Saturday night when he was standing in the ring after the unanimous decision that went the wrong way for him was announced. He could have said that he beat Miguel Cotto and that he was disgusted. He could have cried for a rematch and declared that the judges sitting at ringside could see no better than the three blind mice.

And Shane Mosley would have had a pretty good argument. After all, he landed more power punches than Cotto did and the two men landed the exact same amount of total punches over twelve rounds – 248 – and it was Mosley who seemed to be coming on at the end.

But Shane Mosley would have none of the muckraking, for that is not the person that he his. Mosley simply shrugged at his bad fortune. And after the twelve rounds of hell that he had just spent locked inside the ropes with the Puerto Rican destroyer who swelled up the right side of his face with thudding lefts that landed with the pop of tiny grenades, Shane simply smiled.

“He’s a young warrior on the verge of greatness,” said Mosley of the 27 year-old Cotto. “I thought it was a very, very close fight. For a guy to be in the ring with me like that and to be able to fight me back, I take my hat off to him.”


Cotto and Mosley mix it up in a classic fight at Madison Square Garden.

Mosley had given a spirited performance and he looked as good or better than he had in years. His blazing hands and darting foot movements were mixed in with digging bodyshots and stinging overhand rights. He threw one hundred more punches than Cotto and had you not known that he won his first world championship as a 135-pound lightweight over a decade ago you would never have guessed that he had just turned 36 in September.

“Regardless of whether I felt I won or not, I felt it was a close fight,” said Mosley when asked to give his thoughts on the night. “But the judges seen it Miguel’s way and it was a great fight. I take my hat off to him, he’s a young warrior.”

HBO network blow-by-blow man Jim Lampley called the fight from ringside. He has been at the mic for nearly all of Mosley’s fights over the past decade and though he was impressed with Mosley’s performance in the ring against Cotto, he was even more taken with Mosley’s behavior afterwards.

“How thrilling it is, how magnificent it is, the class of a Shane Mosley. So many modern athletes would have stood there and told you they won the fight, they got robbed, etcetera, etcetera,” said Lampley. “The best cliché in sports commentary is to say that a guy is just as good or an even better human being than he is an athlete. Shane Mosley totally typifies that.”

If Shane Mosley threw his final punch as a prizefighter on Saturday night then he can turn out the lights on his career knowing that he is one of the few that will continue to shine brightly for years to come. There aren’t many that can spend a lifetime in the gutter of this game they call boxing and not be a changed and bitter man when it’s finally all over.

But that’s not Shane Mosley. Class will always tell.

November 11, 2007

The Strong, Silent Type

Miguel Cotto, a man of few words, is quietly preparing to face Shane Mosley on Saturday night at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

To listen to promoter Bob Arum tell it, WBA welterweight titlist Miguel Cotto, who will meet Shane Mosley for all the marbles and a whole lot more on Saturday night in Madison Square Garden, is one of boxing’s best.

Arum, who has been known to exaggerate a time or two over the course of his forty years in boxing, has this to say about Cotto, and he should know because he has promoted Cotto since day one. “I think that eventually, before he is finished, he will not only achieve the same measure of popularity, if he hasn’t already, as Felix Trinidad, but he will become a cross-over attraction because Felix was never able to learn to speak English and Miguel has.”

The English language aside, in plain speaking terms that anybody can understand, you should know that if Miguel Cotto lets his fists do the talking and he beats Shane Mosley in New York City this weekend, nobody will have to mutter a word.

It will be evident that Cotto will have stepped onto boxing’s elite stage and he will be spoken of in revered terms.

And you must also know that Miguel Cotto has made a career of not saying much. In the ring, he usually has an expression on his face that is best described as somewhere between deadpan and lifeless, and he simply stalks his opposition and either beats them down with clubbing bodyshots - or just breaks their bones. He goes about his business in such a fashion that it reminds you of a piece-meal worker that has done the same thing everyday for a lifetime.

Cotto, a mature 27, is a humble young man and he’s as serious as they come once it gets down to the business of fighting. He speaks barely above a whisper and he is methodical and deliberate when he talks which basically mimics his fighting style. Those that know him and have seen him outside the ring know that he is friendly and that he is quick to laugh, despite his aloof manner and almost shy personality.

When asked about his outlook on things and why he might be a little reserved, Cotto, a man of few words, simply explained it like this; “That’s my personality,” he states. “I can’t do anything with that…that’s my way.”

So what’s it like trying to promote a guy who isn’t exactly ‘Tommy the Talker’? “Miguel is Miguel,” says Arum. “He’s a great, great fighter and he’ a great young man. We, who are close to him, know that he has a great personality. I don’t want him to be a phony. I don’t want him to be what he isn’t.”

And what he is, quite simply, is the next fighter to come from the small island of Puerto Rico that is on the verge of becoming a boxing superstar. With an unbeaten record of 30-0 (25) KO’s he bristles at the suggestion that he is the next Felix Trinidad, the last big name from Puerto Rico to make his mark on the boxing world. While Cotto doesn’t come out and say that dislikes the inevitable comparison, you get the sense that he’s happy being himself and he doesn’t see the need to be anointed the ‘next Trinidad’.

Last week, when asked again about the ‘next Trinidad’ label, Cotto simply said, “I’m not ‘Tito’. I’m Miguel Cotto.”


Even his opponent on Saturday night, “Sugar” Shane Mosley, weighed in with his thoughts on whether he thinks that Cotto will ever be as popular as Trinidad. “I think that it could be pretty close,” says the 36 year-old Mosley. “Trinidad had a tremendous personality where the Puerto Rican fans really loved him and really grasped to him. His personality, his being Puerto Rican, he was very outspoken and the Puerto Ricans just loved him. Cotto is a little quieter and not as open as Trinidad. But, I think that the Puerto Rican fans definitely respect Cotto's heart and respect that when he goes in there he gives his one-hundred percent all as a warrior and they can get behind him.”

For his sake, Mosley better hope that the fans don’t get behind Cotto too much.

The last time that Cotto fought in Madison Square Garden, in June against Zab Judah, he drew a standing room only crowd of 20,561 that witnessed a thrilling back and forth scrap. They cheered Cotto’s every blow and it was a pitched battle where both fighters showed tremendous heart and grit and each shed some blood. Ultimately it was Cotto that proved victorious with an electrifying eleventh round stoppage that had the fans in the Garden cheering like it was Ali vs. Frazier in 1971, or at the very least, Duran vs. Moore in 1983. The roar of the crowd made it sound like the roof was going to blow off MSG when Cotto, with rivulets of blood streaming down his face and chest, finally forced referee Arthur Mercante, Jr. to step in and save Judah.

Afterwards, Cotto, dressed smartly in a pale yellow polo shirt, showed up late at the post fight press conference. Before he arrived, Miguel’s cut-man, the brilliant Miguel Diaz, leaned toward Bob Arum, who was running the post fight presser as deftly as General George S. Patton at the Battle of the Bulge, and whispered into Arum’s ear that Cotto “was going to be little late, he’s getting stitches put in.”

It looked like someone had stuck two sausages where Cotto’s lips were supposed to be and he had scrapes all over his forehead. He admitted that Zab, “made my legs do a little dance” when he was nailed early in the fight. But what became clear to all as the press conference wore on is that Cotto is a class act. He had just spent eleven rounds in hell with Judah, yet he answered each and every question posed by reporters and the time was getting close to two in the morning. He also admitted that he had made a trip to Zab Judah’s dressing room to apologize to him personally for the errant low blows that landed during the fight.

So is Shane Mosley concerned or excited to fight Puerto Rico’s newest favorite son in the Garden?

“It's going to be a great feeling to be in Madison Square Garden to fight where all the legendary fighters fought,” says Shane, who is a former three-division world champion. “You know, Ray Robinson, Muhammad Ali - all the great fighters fought in this arena. And for me to fight in there in the big arena with Miguel Cotto, who is a great Puerto Rican fighter, a young fighter coming up - this is history in the making.”

With the fight only days away, Cotto is the betting favorite over Mosley, and that fact alone speaks volumes about what the man of few words has accomplished thus far in a career that is on the verge of exploding into brilliance.

When asked for his final thoughts on what he thinks will happen against Mosley, Cotto was blunt and to the point, sort of like his punches.

“I don’t think Shane can handle Miguel Cotto,” he said with a serious look.

And really, what else is there to say?


NOVEMBER 2007

Donald Trump praises Putin and defames George W. Bush

USA’s most notorious and popular businessman Donald Trump said in a recent TV interview with CNN’s Larry King that George Bush was the worst president in the history of the United States. Trump also praised Vladimir Putin and said that the Russian president was one of the most successful contemporary politicians.

“Now, they're talking about China. They're talking about Russia. They're talking about India. Look at Putin - what he's doing with Russia - I mean, you know, what's going on over there. I mean this guy has done - whether you like him or don't like him - he's doing a great job. In rebuilding the image of Russia and also rebuilding Russia period. Forget about image,” Trump said.

Speaking about George W. Bush, Donald Trump said: “I'm blaming him for a war. I'm blaming him for the prestige of the country. I'm blaming him that when somebody like me goes to London or goes to Paris or goes throughout the world where I go, we're no longer respected like we were. That's what I'm blaming him for. ”

Trump appeared in the studio with Larry King to talk about his new book titled “Think Big and Kick Ass.”

“This is a book on toughness, on making money, on sort of creating a happy life, in a certain sense, through money and through other things. And we came up with the title, which I think is pretty descriptive, although some people thought it was a little bit tough, adding the words "kick ass". But it is a little bit about kicking ass because, unfortunately in life, sometimes you have to do that,” Trump said about his latest work.

When Larry King asked his famous guest about his hatred for George W. Bush, the billionaire did not hesitate to give a straightforward answer: “Well, I just hate what's happened to this country. We've gone to a country that's no longer respected. We're in a war that we should have never - and by the way, I'm worse than any hawk there is in terms of military and in terms of defending ourselves. But Saddam Hussein didn't knock down World Trade Center. He had nothing to do with it. And there were no weapons of mass destruction. There was nothing. Saddam Hussein, you know what he did with the terrorists? He killed them. He would kill terrorists. And now Iraq is a breeding ground. That's where all the terrorists are going. They're going to Iraq because that's the safest place for them to be. And we're in this country and we should have never been there.”

In 2003, Trump became the executive producer and host of the NBC reality show, The Apprentice, in which a group of competitors battled for a high-level management job in one of Trump's commercial enterprises. The other contestants were "fired," or eliminated, from the game. At the end of each episode, Trump eliminates at least one contestant while uttering the catchphrase "You're fired." For the first year of the show Trump was paid $50,000 per episode (roughly $700,000 for the first season), but following the show's initial success, he is now paid a reported $3 million per episode, making him one of the highest paid TV personalities. In 2004, Donald Trump filed a trademark application for the phrase "You're fired," which he had popularized on the show.

Donald Trump, a two-time Emmy Award-nominated personality, has made appearances as a caricatured version of himself in television series and films (e.g. Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, The Nanny, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Days of Our Lives), as a character (The Little Rascals). He has been the subject of comedians, flash cartoon artists, and online caricature artists. In addition to the aforementioned forms of media he has appeared on, he has been a guest on various talk shows and other media.

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