Bravo Executive Andy Cohen Scores Audition For Joan Rivers' Talk Show On Talent Alone

For weeks now, a search has been on to find the perfect three Gays to join Joan Rivers on her upcoming Bravo talk show, Can We Dish?. (For the pitch-arithmetic inclined, the show is basically The View - 3 loud women + 3 loud women with dicks.) The enormous field of sassy-mouthed opinion-havers was eventually whittled down to ten, and according to Page Six, a surprise favorite has emerged: Former New Jersey governor Jim McGreevey, best known for his "I am a gay American" resignation speech. But with the other two spots still open, a Defamer operative tells us that none other than Jessica Simpson-loathing Bravo executive Andy Cohen managed to pull some strings and score an audition for himself:

Guess who ELSE auditioned during the same slot? Andy Cohen! Do you smell a conflict of interest? After all, if you're Joan, (or her production company) and the VP of Bravo programming wants to be on your show... and can pretty much cancel or renew the damned thing at his whim - wouldn't there be some pressure to put him on? So this must mean a cast of Joan, Jim, Andy, and for diversity - RuPaul? (Okay, I made up the RuPaul part, but let's not write it off until the announcements are made.)
Cohen sashayed out of the audition, namedropped as many folks as possible in the moments he had before leaving, then breezed out, flip flops and white pants ablazing, as he mentioned something about an overseas trip he had to make. Perhaps he should do less world traveling and more searching for an alternative to airing weekend long marathons of Project Runway. We've seen them ALL already!

True, having an exec saunter in to "audition" for his own network's series might raise some eyebrows, but this is no ordinary TV executive. Cohen's blog has proven that he is a born raconteur—who could forget the one about the Cybill Shepherd pitch meeting turned freeballing, softcore menage-a-trois. And there's always the added hilarity of Cohen coughing the words "TV Guide Channel!" into his fist every time Rivers hogs the spotlight, then catching a glimmer of terror ignite the eyes of her otherwise frozen face.