tuesday, august 10, 2010 ARENA STAGE


Tony winner to star Phylicia Rashad will team with Broadway director Kenny Leon this fall in one of the theater’s inaugural productions since getting a $125 million makeover. C2


Style ABCDE C S NAMES AND FACES


In a stew “Top Chef: D.C.” contestant Timothy Dean is embroiled in legal drama. C2


CAROLYN HAX A dividing line


? Couple clashes over suggested move to “gentrified” area. C5


REVIEWS Music “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World Soundtrack,” Mike Posner’s “31 Minutes to Takeoff” and Blake Shelton’s “All About Tonight” Plus: Singles file C3


MUSIC Heated debate


Controversial song from Eminem and Rihanna highlights domestic violence. C3


3LIVE TODAY @ washingtonpost.com/discussions “Project Runway” judge Nina Garcia takes your fashion questions noon • Paul Farhi explores pop culture and trends 1 p.m.


WJLA-TV’s McKelway suspended, sources say


Veteran newsman reportedly ‘in limbo’ after clash with station manager


by Paul Farhi Veteran TV newsman Doug McKel-


waymay have said too much — not to viewers but to his boss. As a result, the WJLA-TV journalist has been ordered off the air and suspended indefinitely, according to sources at the station. McKelway’s troubles began last month when he covered a Capitol Hill rally during WJLA’s noon newscast. The rally by religious and environ- mental groups was to protest BP’s re- sponse to the gulf oil spill and to ad- vocate for legisla- tion favoring re- newable energy sources.


According to


McKelway joined the TV station in 2001.


several of McKel- way’s colleagues, the newsman’s re- porting may have lapsed into parti- san territory when he commented live


on the air about the oil industry’s in- fluence in Washington, particularly its contributions to Democratic politi- cians and legislators. The episode led to a meeting be-


tween McKelway and Bill Lord, WJLA’s station manager and news di- rector, that featured sharp exchanges between them, said several newsroom sources who spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not au- thorized to speak about a personnel issue. “The issue wasn’t what he said in the live shot. It was what he said when he was questioned about it by Bill,” said one of McKelway’s colleagues. “The issue is insubordination.” McKelway reportedly was notified of his suspension after his encounter with Lord. One newsroom manager described McKelway as “in limbo” at the station, which is known as ABC7. Although he hasn’t appeared on the air since the incident, he remains un- der contract and his photo and official biography remain on WJLA’s Web site. The station has made no public comments about McKelway’s absence from its midday newscast or “Good Morning, Washington,” which he had co-hosted. Station spokeswoman Abby Fenton


mckelway continued on C5 GUSTAVO CABALLERO/GETTY IMAGES


Celebrity politicians are nothing new, but it’s not a role all of


them were born to play by David Montgomery


N


RUNNING MAN:Musician Wyclef Jean wants to be president of Haiti.


For oil rig workers, high stress and high risk attendance.


Drilling companies say safety is emphasized but reports show uptick in accidents


by Carol D. Leonnig and Marc Kaufman


After a 10-hour ride over choppy seas,


a crew of welders arrived just before midnight at an oil rig in the waters off Galveston, Tex. The eight men were briefed on rig evacuation plans and as- signed bunks, where they slept for two or three hours before being awakened for work. They were at their job to cut a 60-inch hole in a thick piece of metal well before dawn. A safety and planning meeting was held around 5 a.m. but, according to an investigation by the Minerals Man- agement Service of the 2008 accident, none of the men from the crew were in


Confusion reigned for the next two hours: At one point, an oil rig worker told the men to stop cutting; at another, a man from the welding crew left the site to tell the rig crew that he feared the metal slab they were cutting would break loose and they would fall to their deaths. He returned to his work just in time to watch as the metal gave way and a co-worker, unable to regain his bal- ance, fell 50 feet to a deck below, and then into the Gulf of Mexico. At 10 a.m., the report said, the man was declared dead.


On more than 4,000 platforms and ex-


ploration rigs in the gulf, workers are asked daily to do very arduous work un- der difficult conditions — often with lit- tle sleep and sometimes with limited in- structions and inadequate training. Ac- cording to scores of accident reports and panel investigations by the MMS in re- cent years, the stressful and sometimes confused working conditions played a


significant role in the accidents and deaths that have occurred in the gulf. In the past two years, federal rig inspectors have warned their bosses of a looming safety crisis because of workers’ minimal training. But little changed. Factories out at sea where work com- monly goes on 24 hours a day, seven days a week, drilling rigs and platforms are among the more dangerous places in the country to work. A 2008 Centers for Dis- ease Control report said that the overall fatality rate for workers in the oil and gas extraction industry was “approximately seven times the rate for all workers” be- tween 2003 and 2006, with many deaths caused by accidents involving machinery and pipes and overexertion. Injury rates, which are more complex and contro- versial, were not included in the report. Statistics from the Minerals Manage- ment Service, now renamed the Bureau of Ocean Energy (BOE), show that 1,298


safety continued on C2


ow that Wyclef Jean is running for president of Haiti, the big question is whether, deep down, the hip-hop ac- tivist is more like Ignace Paderewski, the great Polish pianist and compos- er, or Rubén Blades, the Panamanian actor and salsa singer.


Paderewski set aside his grand piano in 1919 to be- come prime minister of Poland. Blades flamed to de- feat with 18 percent of the vote in his 1994 bid for the presidency of Panama. That’s the way it is with celebrities who look at the people running the world and say, Hey, I could do that. They marshal their money, talent and fame for a quixotic venture; endure accusations of dilettan- tism and vanity — and discover politics is much harder than they thought. Paderewski threw up his hands and quit after less than a year. For every Fred Grandy — Gopher on “The Love


Boat”; elected to Congress from Iowa (R), 1987-1995 — and Ben L. Jones — Cooter Davenport on “The Dukes of Hazzard”; elected to Congress from Geor- gia (D), 1989-1993 — there’s a Nancy Kulp — Miss Hathaway on “The Beverly Hillbillies”; defeated for Congress from Pennsylvania (D) in 1984 — and a Ralph Waite — John Walton Sr. on “The Waltons”; defeated for Congress from California (D) three times between 1990 and 1998. Where do they get off thinking they have any busi- ness in politics? To put it another way, as Ronald Reagan said in his congratulatory telephone call to Clint Eastwood, upon the latter’s 1986 election as mayor of Carmel, Calif.: “What’s an actor who’s played with a monkey


celebrities continued on C3


GERALD HERBERT/ASSOCATED PRESS


TALL ORDER:Drilling pipes loom large on an oil platform. A CDC report showed fatality rates on rigs at about seven times higher than that for all workers.


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