“Larry King Live!” at Bovard tonight

Posters around the Annenberg building seem to be the only indication that Larry King will be on campus tonight. But what exactly is he doing here? The 11×17 advertisement (most clearly visible in the ASC elevator foyer) for the event is, at best, ambiguous and at worst, visually deceptive.

Using images of the television host from his long-running CNN interview program, and incorporating the show’s colored stage lighting and RCA microphone background and silver embossed logo font, the poster seems to be, at least on first glance, official Larry King Live propaganda.

Aside from taking advantage of Up Style newspaper headlines and titling the event “Larry King Live!” the fact that the on-campus event lasts for one hour — perfect interview-show length — gives passerbys the illusion that an episode of Larry King Live will be filmed at Bovard with free admission to USC students.

But a closer look at the event’s description reveals that although Larry King Live will not be broadcasting from the grand ballroom of Trousdale, Larry King will be live and “sharing his remarkable journey in the entertainment and journalism industry” instead, which, in a sense, could be an even greater opportunity.

A slight bummer that the king of call-outs won’t be transporting his set over to UPC like he did for Donald Rumsfeld at the Pentagon (I had hopes!), but instead of watching King talk to other people about their questionably interesting lives, this is a rare opportunity to hear the man usually wielding the questions talk about himself.