Celebrity News

Keith Olbermann sticks up for boss’ wife

Keith “Uberdork” Olbermann made like a knight in shining armor when he came to the defense of Alison Stewart, co-host of the new PBS show “Need to Know.”

But when the MSNBC bloviator named Washington Post TV critic Tom Shales his third “Worst Person in the World” the other night, Olbermann neglected to tell his viewers that Stewart, who used to substitute-host for him on “Countdown,” is married to Bill Wolff, the cable channel’s vice president for prime-time programming.

“While he’s attacking people’s ethics, he himself is guilty of a huge oversight. He’s intentionally misleading viewers,” Shales told us. “Stewart is more than a colleague. She’s his boss’ wife. It’s a deliberate deception.”

Shales had infuriated the MSNBC camp by writing in his Tuesday review of “Need to Know” that when Stewart interviewed Bill Clinton, “She looked as though she would have been much more comfortable in Clinton’s lap.”

Stewart — calling Shales’ remark “crude, crass and sexist” — said Thursday, “Mr. Shales is certainly entitled to his own views about our program, but in most workplaces it would be simply unacceptable to make this kind of public, suggestive insinuation about a colleague.”

Olbermann then chimed in on his ratings-challenged show, calling for Shales to be “terminated.”

An MSNBC spokeswoman denied Wolff has anything to do with Olbermann’s show, saying, “Bill is the executive producer of the Rachel Maddow show. He does not have any oversight over Keith’s show. He is not Keith’s boss.”

Asked if Wolff’s programming title was fake, the spokeswoman said, “You can characterize it any way you want.”