May 16, 2008 10:34

John Edwards stole my joke on air

I was sitting in a makeup chair at the Today Show this morning when who should slip in next to me but the former presidential candidate. Three first impressions:

• John Edwards really does have great hair.
• John Edwards seems to have a permatan.
• John Edwards had a headache.

The former senator said his contacts had given him a headache, so the makeup lady gave him some drops. When he settled in, the TV monitor began to blare with the sound of throngs of shrieking thirtysomethings outside.

"Wow, Senator," I said. "You've got a lot of fans."

He laughed. John Edwards has a really nice laugh. The fans, of course, were in fact there to see the first reunion in 15 years of the '90s boy band New Kids on the Block. Someone mentioned the crowds knew the words to every song.

"Just like they know all the words to your speeches," I said to John Edwards. "'Two Americas!'"

He laughed again. John Edwards is basically a really nice man who's accustomed to hearing retarded jokes from strangers.

Then it happened. When he got on air, he led with: "I thought all those fans outside were for me!" John Edwards totally stole my joke! Not that I mind. He's dreamy. I'd vote for him. I wish he'd run for president or something.

Sphere Related Blogs & Articles

|

May 16, 2008 9:14

Career advice for college grads

Here's the segment I was on this morning on the Today Show. I'm on first, but stay tuned for the other experts; their advice is really sound, and plus they look better on TV. I cited CBCampus.com's list of top cities, for which the CareerBuilder offshoot looked at the availability of rentals and jobs, coupled with my own research on hot job sectors, top employers and unemployment rates. They were:

1. Philadelphia: cost of one-bedroom rental, $962 2. Boston: $1,343 3. New York: $1,520 4. Phoenix: $741 5. Chicago: $1,029 Source: Apartments.com, Careerbuilder.com

Note my enormous preggo bloat. The crew guy who clipped my microphone on worried I'd topple off the stool. I worried they'd have to go to a wide-angle lens. I assured Meredith Viera I'd try not to go into labor on set, but in retrospect, that would have made for a memorable segment, wouldn't it? Messy, though. Watch. Be kind.

Sphere Related Blogs & Articles

|

May 16, 2008 8:53

That was me (and NKOTB) on the Today Show

Not much gets me up at 5:30 a.m. This morning a car came for me and took me to 30 Rockefeller Center. The place was mobbed with screaming people in the pouring rain. Now, I work just across the street, and I see crowds every morning waiting to catch a glimpse of Matt and Meredith—but nothing along these lines.

I was on a segment on the Today Show this morning about the best cities for college grads. (More on that in a later post.) The section of the show is called The Whip, and features five experts on a hot topic, which in this case was jobs and other prospects for recent college graduates.

I arrived in the green room, all bleary from a hideous night spent wrangling a sleepless three-year-old, to find an old friend: Carmen Wong Ulrich, a colleague from Money magazine. Since she left that magazine, she's published a book called Generation Debt and become a sought-after TV personality on personal finance. Carolyn Kepcher was also on the couch. You and I know her from The Apprentice; since she left that show, she's published a hot business book called Carolyn 101 and launched a company, Carolyn & Co. Media.

The others on the segment were Dale Atkins, the popular psychologist and author, and Rod Kurtz, an editor at Inc.com.

Anyway, so we get there at the butt-crack of dawn for hair and makeup. The amount of labor that goes into a show like this one is truly mind-boggling. This morning I necessitated the services of a limo driver, two very sweet pages, two very competent producers, a hair guy, a makeup lady, a microphone-fixer crew person, and, of course, Meredith Viera, the interviewer. And all that's for what amounted to a two-minute segment. Two minutes! I suppose it's comparable to the man-hours we put into, say, two paragraphs that run in TIME Magazine. But still.

So we step outside after our segment to a screaming, stamping, soaking wet crowd. The star attraction? New Kids on the Block. Seriously. "Some of them have been camped out here for two days," said a staffer. Seriously. Said a crew guy, "This might be our biggest crowd ever." Seriously!

But I am so not above the crowds. Carmen and I snuck out to a strip just yards from the stage and watched the sound check, hyperventilating like preteen girls. We called our sisters: "Can you hear this? It's NKOTB!!" Go on. Be jealous, girlfriends. I was feet from Donnie Wahlberg.

Step by step... / NBC

Sphere Related Blogs & Articles

|