Dear Viewers,
As you all know, I flew back from Los Angeles on the red-eye to Washington, DC. That means quite simply: no sleep and so I am in a bit of a fog. I went home for a few hours and then started the drive to the Fox Bureau. I called my senior producer in charge of my show as I drove in to work so that I could get an idea of what we are doing tonight. Since she was in California with me, she is likewise sleep deprived and I suspect in the same fog as I am. As she told me how our show is planned for the night, she nonchalantly slipped into the conversation, "Oh, your picture is in Playboy (search) this month." She said it like, "next week maybe we could have lunch together."
I nearly drove off the rode! My picture in PLAYBOY?!
While I have no history of nude photos, it nonetheless caught me by surprise. Did someone doctor a photo? It turns out that when I interviewed Hugh Hefner in May, his PR staff took a photo and that photo appears in this month's edition. But, the way my producer told me totally caught me off guard. She had the photo and could see what it was, so she had a different perspective on our conversation than I did. For me, it came out of left field. It isn't often -- in fact it has never happened -- that I am told there is a photo of me in Playboy. As an aside, I am inadvertently finding myself a "regular" in Playboy (only I would have that luck!) Last month OJ Simpson talked about me -- my coverage of his trial -- in Playboy.
Ever wonder what anchors do in their "spare" time while on the road? Here is a sample of our two-day road show to Los Angeles.
I arrived in Los Angeles about 11:45 am on Wednesday. I immediately went to the hotel and checked in both to the room and with my New York producer who beat me to L.A. by about 20 minutes. Minutes later we were on our way to a taping of Fox Sports Net's - Best Damn Sports Show. I wanted to take the opportunity to talk about my new book My Turn at the Bully Pulpit and to talk sports (I love sports and with athletes getting into all sorts of trouble, I can sometimes talk myself on to a sports show!).
From the BDSS, we raced across town to the L.A. Bureau to watch the California debate and of course show preparation. On The Record was an hour later than usual because of the debate so we did our show from 11 to midnight East Coast time.
We then jumped back in a car -- midnight East Coast time -- and raced across town to do the The Jimmy Kimmel Show. Jason Biggs was the guest before me so I got to meet him (yes, people on TV like to meet others on TV or in the movies!) The Kimmel show is one of the biggest productions I have ever seen. The green room looked like a frat party -- it had dozens and dozens of young people socializing with food and music. You could not hear anyone talk over the noise of the crowd. The Kimmel green room alone could be a reality show. (Incidentally, in contrast, our green room in Washington is about 6 feet by 15 feet and you won't find young people partying, but you may run into Henry Kissinger, Senator Hatch, Bernie Grimm, Ted Williams, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, Secretary Tommy Thompson, Lynne Cheney, etc... not a wild and crazy group but nonetheless fun to meet and see.) Kimmel's set looks like a high school auditorium -- it is huge! After the interview with Jason Biggs and me, we then went outside to hear the band. Security was all over the place since the show is that kind of show - wild and fun. If you take a trip to L.A., you might want to get tickets to his show.
We got back to the hotel about 3 a.m. East Coast time (or at least that is what time I think it was... with the time change and the nonstop work, I am not really sure when we got back to the hotel.) We were all so tired, that we practically did not make it past the lobby to our rooms.
On Thursday morning, we got up and took advantage of our "free" time. We got in a car and raced across town to the LA County Courthouse (where the OJ Simpson criminal case was tried.) I knew Mark Geragos (Scott Peterson's lawyer) was in trial and I just wanted to see him at work. We walked in just as he was giving his opening statement in a murder case. When the judge took a break, I asked Mark how long his murder trial was expected to last. He said the judge told the jury it would go until about Oct. 30th. This is very significant since if Mark is in a murder trial in LA on Oct. 20, he can't be in Modesto to start Scott Peterson's preliminary hearing. That means the Peterson preliminary hearing will have to be postponed again. By the way, this happens all the time that one of the lawyers - prosecutor or defense - is stuck in some trial thus bumping some other matter (here the Peterson preliminary hearing.) I told Mark I would be stunned, having listened to his opening statement, if his trial would last until October 30. It just did not seem like a complicated murder case that would take more than a month to try. He agreed but said that was the judge's estimate. I guess the message: stay tuned.
From the courtroom we jumped in a car and raced across town to tape the Wayne Brady Show. I had a great time doing that -- it airs on Monday. Wayne just won an Emmy and it is obvious why. My prediction: Oprah move over! Wayne is her biggest threat. His staff also told me that they love working with him -- that's also a very good sign.
After taping Wayne Brady we were back in the car to go back to the Fox bureau in LA to watch the Democratic debate. Then, of course, we did On the Record. After the show, all of us heading back to DC changed our clothes. Since we were all headed to the red eye flight, we wanted to be in comfortable clothes to sleep in. Then, back to the car and the drive to the Los Angeles airport and the all night flight back to the East Coast.
As you can imagine, our diet for the time in L.A. was not particularly good -- pizza and Chinese food delivered to the news bureau, etc. That seems to be the diet of people in the news business on the road.
So that is how I spent my "spare" time in L.A. Yes, not much time to rest, but it sure is a great job. I am tired, but lucky.
Greta
Watch On the Record with Greta Van Susteren weeknights at 10 p.m. ET
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