Dr. Laura Foes Launch Effort to Attend Show

Laura Schlessinger’s new Paramount-distributed daytime television talk show is advertising for audiences to attend tapings, and her critics are eagerly answering the call.

An e-mail message sent out by the group stopdrlaura.com lists the toll-free number, as posted on Schlessinger’s Web site, to get “VIP tickets,” and calls on advocates opposed to the talk-show host in the Los Angeles area to “get your own free tickets and pay a visit to the ‘doctor’ in person.” The Monday-through-Friday tapings for the show, which debuts Sept. 11, will be produced out of the new Ray-Art Studios in Canoga Park.

John Aravosis, co-founder of stopdrlaura.com, says his group already knows of people who have gotten tickets and plan to attend tapings but can’t say what they’ll do once they are there. “Gosh, [Paramount and Schlessinger] will just have to wait and see. . . . Are people going to protest, are people going to watch every word and record it? I can’t tell you.”

A Paramount Television spokeswoman said, “Audiences for our shows are on a first-come, first-served basis.”

Opponents are upset about Schlessinger’s perceived anti-gay rhetoric on her nationally syndicated radio talk show. “Dr. Laura has angered a lot of America,” says Aravosis. “We are simply a vehicle for telling the world what Dr. Laura has said; the world has reacted on its own.”

To this point, the campaign against Schlessinger has primarily focused its efforts on pressuring advertisers not to sponsor her program.

Aravosis added: “If [the show] is going to advertise, they’ve got to assume that biological errors, deviants and everyone else is going to attend,” referring to terminology used by Schlessinger in regard to gays and lesbians.