Blonde on Blonde: 9/11, Osama Bin Laden, and Mother's Day

What started out as a sober, reflective morning for Deirdre Imus and Lis Wiehl soon degenerated into a fierce, Blonde on Blonde-style battle over things like cell phones, Mother’s Day, and how much Rob Lowe loves the I-Man.
 
Since news of Osama Bin Laden’s death at the hands of U.S. Navy SEALs broke on Sunday night, it has been difficult to focus on anything else, and today Imus asked Deirdre and Lis to share their 9/11 memories.
 
A native of Washington State, Lis was living in Seattle when the attacks took place, and watched the entire event unfold on television. “In the days after, I remember the kids bringing home pictures of planes flying into buildings, and trying to understand,” she said. Lis also recalled how her local florist, so far away from the scene of the incident, collected money for the families of 9/11 victims. “We were 3,000 miles away, and we were so affected. But not as much, obviously, as here.”
 
By “here,” Lis meant New York City, which is where Deirdre was on the morning of September 11, 2001, watching television as she got three year-old Wyatt Imus ready for pre-school.
 
“I think I was in shock, total shock,” she said. After several unsuccessful attempts to get in touch her husband, who was on the air at the time, Deirdre went down to the lobby of their apartment building, where an awful scene was unfolding.
 
“This woman in our building—her husband was in the tower, and she must have just gotten the news,” Deirdre said. “And it was horrible.”
 
Though Deirdre was just blocks away from Ground Zero and Lis was on the other side of the country, both remembered the sense of powerlessness they felt that morning. And though it took ten years for the U.S. to find and kill Osama Bin Laden, the mastermind behind 9/11, Lis and Deirdre were satisfied with this ending.
 
“There was jubilation in my house,” Lis reported. “I hate to say that for the death of somebody, but we were jubilating.”
 
In the aftermath of Rob Lowe’s appearance, Imus was feeling pretty jubilant himself, having been told that Lowe was a fan of this program. “I don’t know if he said it on the air,” Imus conceded. “But he did say it.”
 
Deirdre and Lis were more concerned with whether the hunky Lowe was still hanging around the green room, and once they discovered he was not, moved on to talk about smart phones. Lis, the only attorney present today, insisted cell phone companies have the right to store users’ personal data, and that customers should read the fine print in their contracts.
 
For reasons Lis presumed are monetary, a class action suit was filed recently against cell phone carriers for tracking people's locations, and other infractions. “It’s going to go to Congress, it’s going to go through a lot of hearings,” she said. “I don’t think anything’s going to happen because—consumer, beware!”
 
As she has been for years, Deirdre remains most disturbed by the health issues associated with cell phone use, and she shot down Lis’s assertion that cell phones are optional. “It’s not voluntary anymore,” she said, noting that many people no longer have landlines at all.
 
As Wyatt crossed “cell phone” off his list of potential Mother’s Day gifts for Deirdre, Lis confessed that all she wants from her children on this Hallmark-created holiday is three days of quality time alone with her.
 
“It sounds like you’re punishing them,” Deirdre observed, though her husband countered that 12 minutes was, frankly, about all he could stand of either Blonde this morning.
 
“Happy Mother’s Day,” he offered. “Get out.”
 
-Julie Kanfer