June 6, 2005: Headlines: Friends: COS - Nepal: Journalism: New York Times: Many authors who fail to get on "Today" have a conspiracy theory about why they do not get booked, and Nepal RPCV Laurence Leamer is making a fuss about it at precisely the time his book comes out. But he has his reasons.

Peace Corps Online: Peace Corps News: Peace Corps Library: Friends of the Peace Corps: April 4, 2005: Index: PCOL Exclusive: Friends: Maria Shriver : June 6, 2005: Headlines: Friends: COS - Nepal: Journalism: New York Times: Many authors who fail to get on "Today" have a conspiracy theory about why they do not get booked, and Nepal RPCV Laurence Leamer is making a fuss about it at precisely the time his book comes out. But he has his reasons.

By Admin1 (admin) (pool-151-196-245-37.balt.east.verizon.net - 151.196.245.37) on Sunday, June 12, 2005 - 4:07 pm: Edit Post

Many authors who fail to get on "Today" have a conspiracy theory about why they do not get booked, and Nepal RPCV Laurence Leamer is making a fuss about it at precisely the time his book comes out. But he has his reasons.

Many authors who fail to get on Today have a conspiracy theory about why they do not get booked, and Nepal RPCV Laurence Leamer is making a fuss about it at precisely the time his book comes out. But he has his reasons.

Many authors who fail to get on "Today" have a conspiracy theory about why they do not get booked, and Nepal RPCV Laurence Leamer is making a fuss about it at precisely the time his book comes out. But he has his reasons.

Is Shriver Still Working for 'Today'?

New York Times

AS the first lady of California, Maria Shriver serves as a busy unpaid adviser to her husband, Arnold Schwarzenegger. And in between writing her fifth book, raising four children and making public appearances, she is apparently serving NBC in a similar capacity.

She reluctantly left her job at the network - where she worked as a reporter for "Dateline" - after her husband was elected, but she was recently drafted to help NBC's "Today" show decide whom to have on the air. At least, that's the story according to Laurence Leamer, the author of "Fantastic: The Life of Arnold Schwarzenegger," who was in negotiations for an appearance on both the "Today" show and "Dateline" to promote the book, which comes out tomorrow.

Things seemed to be going well until a series of e-mail messages in March between John Murphy, head of publicity at St. Martin's Press, which is publishing the biography of Mr. Schwarzenegger, and Andrea Smith, a producer at "Today" in charge of authors. In that exchange, it became apparent that before "Today" would officially book Mr. Leamer, he needed to first obtain Ms. Shriver's blessing. Ms. Smith said as much in an e-mail message she sent to Mr. Murphy on March 8, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times: "Anyway, you can ask Maria to call me so I can just make sure she is O.K. with us doing the Leamer book."

Mr. Leamer, who interviewed Ms. Shriver for the book and had long admired her career as a journalist, was incredulous when the request was relayed to him.

"I thought she would go ballistic when she heard that they were doing this," he said last week.

Not exactly. He quickly called her to straighten things out. "When I called Maria, it was not to have her tell them to have me on the show, but just to tell them it was unethical, that they should just do whatever they were going to do," he said. "And she told me, 'There must be something negative about me in the book. I know you are going to make Arnold look really good in this book and make me look really bad. Send me the galleys and then I'll decide.' "

HE did not send the galleys and she never made a call on his behalf. A spokeswoman for Ms. Shriver said she had not been contacted by the "Today" show regarding Mr. Leamer's book and declined to confirm whether Ms. Shriver and Mr. Leamer had spoken about his potential appearance on the program.

According to Lauren Kapp, a spokeswoman at the "Today" show, Mr. Leamer was never formally booked: "It wasn't a booking in which we had much interest in," she said. "Had we, Maria would have had no say in our decision on whether to interview the author." Ms. Kapp declined to comment on the e-mail messages that seemed to indicate otherwise.

Mr. Murphy of St. Martin's Press also denied that there was anything more behind the decision by "Today" not to interview Mr. Leamer. "The only person who thinks that Maria was the problem is Larry," he said, referring to Mr. Leamer. He also noted that Mr. Leamer had not been booked on any other morning shows.

Many authors who fail to get on "Today" have a conspiracy theory about why they do not get booked, and Mr. Leamer is making a fuss about it at precisely the time his book comes out. But he has his reasons. In March, he received an e-mail message from Mr. Murphy stating: "Just back from lunch with Andrea at Today. She says, 'I don't think we can do it because of Maria.' " Mr. Murphy, who was interviewed by phone while he was at the Book Expo America in Manhattan, said he had no recollection of specific e-mail messages about the Leamer appearance.

The blurring of politics and celebrity, governance and journalism, has made it difficult to discern exactly which agendas are at work here. Government officials become commentators, reporters marry politicians and actors run for office. You might expect Ms. Shriver, a longtime, well-respected member of the NBC family, to get a heads-up about Mr. Leamer's appearance, but giving the wife of a governor the right to approve a guest on its network, whether out of personal loyalty or the desire to maintain access, would be a remarkably bad move for a major news organization.

Mr. Leamer, who has written a number of nonfiction best sellers, three of them about the Kennedys, said he had good relationships with the family and had extensive interviews with Mr. Schwarzenegger for the book. And he is no stranger to NBC; he said he had appeared on "Today" to promote four of his last five books and had worked as a consultant to MSNBC in the past.

While the book suggests that not all of Mr. Schwarzenegger's friends and associates appreciate Ms. Shriver's presence and influence, she comes off as a remarkably balanced and self-possessed person living in extraordinary circumstances. There are passages about Mr. Schwarzenegger's sexual history that would make any spouse wince, but nothing she has not heard before.

Ms. Shriver has been quietly steadfast through all this, perhaps a legacy of her life growing up immersed in the political and media process. As the daughter of Sargent Shriver and Eunice Kennedy Shriver (sister of John, Robert and Ted), Ms. Shriver may have been born on third base, but she has earned her way in television, working her way up from an intern at local stations to be a host of the "CBS Morning News" before being fired and then becoming a significant player at NBC News.

Ms. Shriver's journalistic and political instincts have merged in her role as a governor's wife: In a story in the January issue of Vanity Fair, she wondered aloud to the reporter, Marie Brenner, whether she should cooperate.

"Why should I do this?" she said on the phone. "I never do anything without knowing the endgame."

Mr. Schwarzenegger's campaign used his fame and fan base to engineer a work-around on traditional political practices. He announced his candidacy on NBC on "The Tonight Show," with his motorcycling buddy, Jay Leno. And he was subsequently elected from a scrum of 135 candidates in a recall election in 2003, partly because of massive media coverage wherever he went. There was a downside to his celebrity: in the week before the election, The Los Angeles Times ran an article reporting that the actor had sexually mistreated 16 women. He attacked the articles and the motivation behind them, but publicly apologized for his behavior.

Mr. Schwarzenegger, like his political hero, Ronald Reagan, has mastered the stagecraft of politics and views reporters as a necessary and highly malleable part of the process. He also knows the media game because he is part of it, serving as the executive editor at two magazines, Muscle & Fitness and Flex, owned by American Media. Whatever the publications lacked in terms of platform, they made up for in the form of protection. American Media owns both The National Enquirer and The Star, two publications that could have made much out of Mr. Schwarzenegger's very textured past when he ran for governor. Instead, they did business with him.

"I think it's common sense," Mr. Schwarzenegger said to Mr. Leamer in an interview for the book. "Do you want to work with someone who you are attacking? You don't have to say anything. You don't have to be sleazy and make deals. It's human nature."

There are many ways to inoculate oneself against the vagaries of the media: a good press agent, a talent for charming obfuscation or menacing lawyers. But veteran status at a major news organization and a business relationship with the tabloid press is a one-two combination that is tough to beat.





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Story Source: New York Times

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