Producer (7 page)

Jackie could not have been more gracious as she invited me in and offered me a Coke. “Why don’t you and Suzy work here today?”
she offered in her inimitable voice as I stood in her kitchen, making a phone call. She was wearing a beautiful summery shift
and she was barefoot and arranging flowers, a vision I will never forget. In fact, I will never forget a word she ever said
to me or to anyone else.

I recall one evening in my room, in bed, when I caught the glow of Jackie’s porch lights from outside my window. I sat up
and watched through the window as she walked two guests out of her front door, lingering to say, “Good night, Maria. Arnold,
I really enjoyed meeting you. Hope to see you again soon.” It just seemed that whatever Jackie did or said, I found her alluring
and as beautiful with no makeup as she was when she was done up for the public.

One day, when Ethel told me she was going to throw Jackie a party at the compound for her fiftieth birthday, I was thrilled.
The rest of the world and I had watched this graceful woman
as First Lady and as a grieving widow, veiled and walking in the funeral parade of her slain husband. I was ten years old
when JFK was assassinated, and I wrote about it my diary:

Nov. 22, 1963

A very terrible thing happened, Kennedy is now dead. He was shot in the head and was dead at one o’clock. It’s very hard to
believe. It’s so shocking. Each bullet was three inches. Now Vice President Johnson is President.

He was a wonderful man. I am so sorry he is dead and I’m sure everyone else is, too. I haven’t written in my diary for 27
days. I thought this would be a good time to start. Even though I didn’t want him for President, he was a very good President.
I hate to think someone would do such a thing as to kill him.

Now it was Jackie’s fiftieth birthday, and I would help to arrange the details for her party. The birthday guest list included
Tom Brokaw and Walter Cronkite as well as many other luminaries in the news and political world. And all the Kennedys. It
was a cloudy evening, there was a slight breeze, and drinks were served outdoors before dinner while the sun was setting.
I remember watching some people doing the limbo on the lawn, and I was amazed when Walter Cronkite took a turn shimmying his
body under the limbo rope! Then, when we were all gathered around the dining room table after the drinks and games, there
I was, too, part of the celebrating committee, sitting at a side table with Suzy, eating and toasting Jacqueline Onassis.
All I could do was ask myself what on earth I was doing there.

One afternoon before the tennis tournament, I was surprised
when Mrs. Onassis wandered over to the small makeshift garage office where I was sitting on the front stoop, going over some
lists. She sat beside me and looked at the papers I was holding. She had on a navy top and a pair of white pants held together
with a safety pin.

“Wendy,” she slowly articulated, “what plane is John on for the tournament? Who’s on the plane with him?” She looked directly
into my eyes, something she always did when she spoke to anyone. After telling myself silently,
Mrs. Jackie Onassis is sitting on a step beside me
, I pulled it together and explained the flight manifest. I still recall her apparent discomfort as she wandered away looking
less than satisfied. “I worry when he flies,” she said over her shoulder. Her son was a teenager at the time and she seemed
concerned. How could anyone have known the fate that was awaiting John Jr., as he and his wife and her sister would die in
a plane crash many years later. It feels positively eerie today when I recall how nervous Jackie was that day.

To jump ahead, I was working for Larry in 1994 when I was at the Washington bureau and bumped into JFK Jr. There was a Democratic
campaign office on the first floor of the building and John, now in his midtwenties, was leaving one afternoon as I was arriving
with one of my staff producers. We greeted each other and he said, “Since CNN is in this building, do you think I could see
the set? I always wanted to see those lights.”

“Would you like to see them now?” I asked.

“Sure,” he said.

I turned to the woman walking with me and said, “Please go to the set right now and make sure all the lights are turned on.
We’ll be right up.”

She took off ahead of me while John and I waited for the
next elevator. By the time we got to the set, the lights were lit and I walked him around casually, as if I did this sort
of thing every day. Like it was no big deal. The crew couldn’t take their eyes off John as he viewed the set and said, “Funny,
it looks so different on the air.” When he went behind the desk and examined each colored light separately, I said, “I hope
we get you to sit here sometime.”

And so we did. Just as eerie and foreboding as Jackie’s fear of her son flying was September 28, 1995, when Larry interviewed
JFK Jr. on the launch of his political magazine,
George.

KING:
For the time being, do you want to stay with it [
George
]?

KENNEDY JR.:
Well, I would hate to say that I am going to do anything until I am seventy. But I am going to be doing this for the foreseeable future.

KING:
Do you ever fear for your own health?

KENNEDY JR.:
Sure.

KING:
There are nuts in this country. I mean, you Kennedys must think about it. How could they not think about it? Any Kennedy. In public life or not.

KENNEDY JR.:
It’s not something… like walking around wondering if you are going to be struck by lightning. It’s… just not something that you really keep in the forefront of your mind.

KING:
But it might affect decision making, like going into politics, mightn’t it?

KENNEDY JR.:
It might. But it doesn’t.

KING:
It seems not to for the five that are in it. But… if you went in, or thought about going in, the thought of being harmed by going in, would not enter into your thoughts?

KENNEDY JR.:
That wouldn’t be one of the considerations, no.

I was so impressed with JFK Jr. I thought he should have his own show on CNN so I arranged for him to meet with the late Ed
Turner, a top CNN executive at the time. John strolled into the meeting holding a banana. He looked incredibly beautiful,
but the powers that be passed on putting him on the air. Big mistake! He would have been a natural. In fact, if he were alive
today, I’m sure he would have a popular political show on the air called
George,
after his magazine, which ceased publication about a year after his tragic death.

Back at the Kennedy compound in Hyannis, I recall a dinner one night when I met a White House producer for ABC news named
Dorrance Smith. It was during the Carter administration and I was totally in awe of Dorrance’s job. It was during a conversation
with him when I thought,
This guy has a job that I’d like to have someday. I think I could do it.
For the time being, though, Ethel was keeping me very busy so how could I even imagine having a job like that? It was quite
a coincidence that Dorrance was a producer for reporter Sam Donaldson, someone I would date in a few years. But during the
time in Hyannisport, I had no idea who he was.

Toward the end of the summer of 1978, we were en route to Forest Hills, New York, on the various chartered planes for the
August 26 tournament that would be broadcast on ABC. The turnout was fantastic and I was glad I had been a stickler for detail.
Each little thing mattered when among the star-studded audience were crooner Andy Williams, Pulitzer Prize–winner Art Buchwald,
actors Chevy Chase, Dustin Hoffman, and Lauren Bacall, and a load of Kennedys.

I ran into Jackie at the tournament, and this time, a compliment from her sent me over the moon. I had chosen to wear an extremely
classic outfit that would still work today—a white silk shirt, khaki lightweight trousers, and a Gucci scarf wrapped
around my waist as a belt. Apparently, the outfit pleased her as Mrs. Onassis said enthusiastically, “Oh, Wendy, I love your
outfit.”

“Thank you, Mrs. Onassis,” I said, almost trembling with excitement. Knowing her fashion sense and her attention to beauty
and detail, I was sure I would never get over it as I continued to scurry around, taking care of the logistics of this huge
celebrity event that was being nationally televised. By the way, I never threw out that scarf!

This was the first time I saw a string of limos and tons of celebrities all gathered in one place. The air was electric as
hundreds of observers kept arriving, and I was intoxicated by the energy of so many people coming together to raise money
for Ethel’s foundation. I was bit by the producing bug right then and there, as we all worked tirelessly to make the event
a huge success. True, I was exhausted when it was over, and I had feared my lack of experience would get in the way of pulling
this off. But pull it off we did. We had taken each thing as it came, made sure we had it all worked out to the smallest detail,
and then moved on to the next.

When we headed back to Hyannis, exhausted and satisfied after a job well done, Ethel asked her inner circle of friends to
write a critique of the tournament so she could make improvements for the next one. The only complaint she received was that
there was no camera on Jackie—the one thing they thought she should correct the next time! That was a testament to our attention
to detail, both large and small. Nothing had been overlooked.

My time with Ethel came to a close about a year after it began. I enjoyed working for Ethel and she asked me to stay on at
Hickory Hill, but I ended up leaving because I had
caught the producer bug and wanted to pursue it. I was sad when my time with the Kennedys came to an end, but I’m grateful
for what I learned from being around one of the most famous American families, and to Suzy, who remains my close friend.

Among the many things I took away from this unique experience, and particularly from Ethel, is that details are everything.
I learned to multitask and to write everything down—and I do mean
everything
. I took notes on each conversation I had so I wouldn’t forget what I needed to do, and to this day, I don’t understand people
who don’t keep lists and notes. If I had a hundred things to do for Ethel, and I finished ninety-nine of them, the detail
I overlooked was inevitably the one thing that was most important to her. Keeping this in mind prepared me for the rest of
my life as I left “all things Kennedy” with the tools to go into any situation and get the job done right.

DETAILS MATTER: THEY ARE EVERYTHING

When you are creating something, anything, you want to leave a lasting impression. You want to present your idea and have
somebody say, “Whoa. This is one great idea.” So how do you stand out? It’s all in the details.

Each time you have a presentation to do, think about the details that will make your work look better than the rest. You can
hand in a generic computer printout of your presentation, or you can jazz it up with a special
cover and attractive colors. People will see that you took the extra step and they will be impressed.

In order to be detail-oriented:

•  Make sure you write down all the details that must be completed.

•  Correct all spelling before you hand in anything.

•  Take a second look at your work before you hand it in.

•  Remember whom you are working for and what they want from you. And do it.

•  Return all your phone calls.

If you can’t manage this last one, there are several things you can do. Try picking up the phone and saying, “I’m on the other
line but I saw your name come up on my caller ID. I can’t talk now but I just wanted to check quickly in case you need something.”
That way, the other person understands that you can’t talk now but you still made the effort to let them know.

If you have one, you can ask an assistant to let the person know that you are busy now but will call later. If you have no
assistant, you can send an e-mail that lets the other person know you care but can’t speak right now. Any of the above will
keep you from being known as someone who doesn’t return phone calls. Don’t try lying and saying, “Oh, I just didn’t get your
message.” With our current state-of-the-art technology, that one doesn’t work.

Right now, we are trying to book a big star to do an interview on our show. But instead of just calling her
assistant and asking for the interview, we’re making a video in which Larry speaks to her personally, explaining why he thinks
his show would be the best venue for her. In a similar fashion, we did videos for Jack Nicholson, Brad Pitt, Al Pacino, Bob
Dylan, Eminem, Amy Winehouse, and John Edwards.

The point is that a job is never done until you’ve completed the last detail.

I
was at a dinner party recently at a friend’s home. I knew some of the people there, others I had never met, and I took my
place at the table with everyone else when dinner was ready. As we were all chatting, sipping wine, and enjoying some wonderful
food, a woman sitting beside me, probably in her midforties, caught my eye and said, “What do you do?”