10. Roseanne Offends A President
Roseanne Barr nee Arnold has been many things over a chequered career-comedienne, writer, actress, talk show host-and all with a measured degree of success. One thing she has definitely never been, however, is a singer. There could be few people who would have looked at the 80's Domestic Goddess and thought of her as a tuneful diva; sadly for all concerned, the officials of the San Diego Padres baseball team were amongst them. The Padres were in the middle of a slump when they thought of an inspired idea to gee up the team and fans by getting beloved sitcom star Roseanne to sing the national anthem before a crucial game. The lack of research into her singing voice was an obvious flaw in the plan. Roseanne started out of key, drifted towards 'pitchy' and, as the cascade of booing from the stands reached fever pitch, ended up in 'swinging a bag of cats against the wall' territory. While the screeching, teeth-grinding performance sounded like nothing less than Hell's own soundtrack, give the girl credit-most Americans don't know the words past the second line. That's something to hold on to. It's hard to say who could count themselves as being the most humiliated: Barr, whose performance was widely castigated and labelled "disgraceful" by President George Bush Snr, or the hapless and nameless official who thought this would be a good idea.