Ringo Starr walks off `Regis and Kelly' show
NEW YORK (AP) -January 22, 2008 Starr, who is promoting his new album, "Liverpool 8," planned
to perform the title song with fellow rocker Dave Stewart. However,
due to miscommunication between his publicist, Elizabeth Freund,
and the musical director, Starr didn't realize the performance had
to be 2 1/2 minutes or less, Freund told The Associated Press.
When told Tuesday morning that the performance had to be
shortened, Freund said Starr tried to cut about a minute of the
song's 4 minute, 15 second length, down to 3 minutes and 30
seconds. However, according to Freund, producer Michael Gellman
said it had to be less than 3 minutes.
"We offered to cut back our chat time and asked them to fade or
go to commercial. They were not willing to do that and Ringo was
not willing to cut it further, so without a compromise we were not
able to stay," Freund said in a statement to The Associated Press.
"Ringo left saying, `God bless and goodbye. We still love
Regis."'
A spokeswoman for "Regis and Kelly" told the AP the show's
producers tried to work with Starr, noting his appearance had been
booked since November and the time requirement for the song - the
show's standard - had been expressed numerous times.
With Starr absent, fashion designer Michael Kors and the winners
of CBS' "The Amazing Race" did extra segments to fill his time.
Starr, 67, shortened his song for CBS' "Late Show With David
Letterman," but it was still over 3 minutes, Freund said.
