Nancy O'Dell says "there is no room for objectification of women"
LOS ANGELES “Entertainment Tonight” host Nancy O’Dell says women shouldn’t be objectified, even in the locker room.
In remarks that aired Monday on the entertainment news show, O’Dell addressed crude, taped comments made about her by GOP presidential contender Donald Trump in 2005 and his response to their release.
Referring to a statement issued Saturday, O’Dell repeated her assertion that “there is no room for objectification of women” or anyone. She then added, “not even in the locker room.”
Rumors spread on the Internet over the weekend that there were similar tapes behind the scenes at “The Apprentice,” which Trump hosted from 2004-15. “The Apprentice” producer Mark Burnett issued a statement Monday saying he and MGM, which owns Burnett’s production company, saying they would not be releasing any tapes from behind the scenes at the show.
“Despite reports to the contrary, Mark Burnett does not have the ability nor the right to release footage or other material from ‘The Apprentice,’” the statement read. “Various contractual and legal requirements also restrict MGM’s ability to release such material.”
The statement refuted the rumor that there was a massive financial penalty to anyone who leaked the tapes. Burnett is a Trump supporter.
During Sunday’s debate with Democratic contender Hillary Clinton, Trump dismissed his taped remarks to then-”Access Hollywood” host Billy Bush as “locker room talk.”
The candidate apologized for the vulgar banter, which included his assertion that he tried and failed to sleep with a married woman he called “Nancy.”
“Access Hollywood” has identified O’Dell as the woman Trump referred to.
In the recording that was published Friday by The Washington Post and NBC News, Trump also said, “When you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything,” adding, “Grab them by the p****. You can do anything.”
Bush, now with NBC’s “Today,” has been suspended from the job he started just two months ago.
In her remarks Monday, O’Dell says she’s been a journalist for 26 years and “it is my job to bring you news about others rather than turning the focus on myself.”
But the release of the tape that’s become national news and part of the presidential race has “thrown me in the middle of the political arena of which I didn’t ask to be a part,” O’Dell said.
In her weekend statement, she said “it was disappointing to hear such objectification of women. The conversation needs to change because no female, no person, should be the subject of such crass comments, whether or not cameras are rolling.”