2. "Cats" is the longest running, most popular and probably most profitable play ever mounted in history. It's widely loved by young and old, alike---though admittedly doesn't include chants of "vagina" or lesbian child molestation like, say, "The Vagina Monologues." Yes, intellectuals have always been in a snit about Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber's musicality, genius, and popularity. What's worse, "Cats" is derived from the work of a man who by today's standards would best be described as a conservative Christian, T.S. Eliot.
3. Lots of people don't have HBO, and never see "Sex In The City." A TELEVISION program is some measurement of being in-tune with culture? If you go down that road you could go on forever. Melrose Place? Dallas? Friends? What halfway well-adjusted adult would base ANY measurement of a person on their knowledge of a prime-time TV program?
4. Chuck Norris: I'd venture to say that his program, Texas Ranger (which I have seen maybe 45 minutes of ever) is not far behind Seinfeld in popularity and recognizability. I notice now that it's popping up all over my TV guide grid in syndication. I admit I know some religious families with pre-teens who never miss Walker Texas Ranger. It's one of the only things on TV the entire family can watch.
What's more, I have seen Norris interviewed in recent months by the likes of BOTH Howard Stern and James Dobson! THAT is pretty broad appeal. Show me ONE OTHER human being whose celebrity has a span that broad and I will eat Walker's Stetson---Norris is viewed as a commodity with appeal to STERN'S audience and also to Focus On The Family.
5. Stone Phillips. Since I renewed my cable subscription some time ago, I haven't watched Dateline, 20/20 or ANY of those lame newsmags on the networks. If you have ever watched one of the newsmags you can see where Bruni is coming from in thinking that somehow Stone Phillips is a "celebrity." Those network newsreaders think that THEY are as important as the news they read.
6. It's a slippery slope to measure another person by your own personal yardstick. HBO's "SMASH HIT" is probably viewed in, I'd guess, 1 in every 20 households. A cable "hit," but hardly ubiquitous, hardly the Super Bowl or The Final Four or even Survivor.
7. Austin Powers is on its second sequel, and has been all over the news the last week or two because of the legal wrangling over its now-nixed title, "Goldmember." AP and Reuters must think it's pretty popular if lawsuits about its TITLE are news. My point here is, Dubya is criticized for knowing obscure things, and he's criticized for knowing widely popular things. Bruni's is such a stretch it would take a contortionist to make it mean anything.