Most Talkative by Andy Cohen

Most Talkative by Andy Cohen

Author:Andy Cohen
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.


Backstage at an awards show with Mark McEwen

Over in Morning Show Alley, we’d be in the corner behind Today and GMA— shows that needed no other set dressing than their superstar anchors. Katie Couric adorably perched in a director’s chair was like catnip that lured in frisky members of the glitterati. By contrast, our CBS area usually consisted of a blue curtain, a plant of the fern variety, a couple lights, and—in later years—a bowl of loose LifeSavers. We were very proud of the candy jar because occasionally the stars would take a piece! That meant they liked us! “Candice Bergen ate a LifeSaver!” we would marvel. At the time, we never saw any irony in choosing that particular candy. And even though the stars straggling by our tent genuinely liked Mark McEwen, we were always last in the rotation, and that meant people were usually sick of giving interviews by the time they got to us. You know what makes for lousy television? One-word answers.

I would try to prebook celebs before award shows, calling publicists and saying that I knew their client was going to win and please don’t forget to stop by backstage to show off the new hardware. We also started pursuing up-and-coming talents who had no real name recognition yet but had gotten some critical acclaim. The hope was that they’d do our show in New York when nobody else knew who they were, and later they’d feel some loyalty to us as they started becoming famous and winning awards. It seemed like a good idea, but it didn’t really work. I remember one particular screaming match with Hilary Swank’s publicist, who’d screwed us in some painful way after we’d gotten behind Hilary when no one else (the Today show) cared.

While everyone who was anyone in Hollywood was out celebrating their wins and trying to work through their losses with the help of recreational consumables, I’d be at CBS Television City writing and editing the piece. We’d always finish and walk out as the sun was rising and I’d complain to Mark that we looked too good to waste ourselves on the war we’d just fought.

To say that morale on that show was at an all-time low is really saying something, but it was true. One day I came in to work and the poster on my office door—for the film Life Is Beautiful—had been ripped down the middle. “Who the fuck ripped my uplifting Holocaust poster?” I yelled. “FYI everybody: I called security and they’re pulling the camera footage from the hallway!” I had every intention of finding the culprit, and a day later one of the anchors came into my office and closed the door.

“I have a confession. I ripped your poster. It was five in the morning, no one was here, I was pissed about something stupid, and it was the first thing I saw. I’m so sorry.”

Life was not beautiful at the bottom of the ratings, and nearing the end of 1999, the anchor was put out of misery with another relaunch of the show.



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