The questions droned on after that, and Blaise wondered how much more the first lady would take. Susie had the guts to ask her if she had smoked dope in college, to which she answered no again, and then, looking at her sympathetically, Susie asked if her husband left her and she was suddenly no longer the first lady, what would she do? The first lady responded that the question was irrelevant and waited for the next one, with the look of someone who has been publicly betrayed.
Susie then outdid herself on the next one, as Blaise held her breath and waited. Susie said she understood that the first lady had a gay brother, and how did she feel about same-sex marriage? And with that, the first lady smiled at her graciously, carefully unclipped her mike off the lapel of her stylish black suit, stood up, and walked off the set, as Susie stared at her in amazement. It had never occurred to her that that could happen, and it never had before. It was a first, and had never happened to Blaise once in her career, with any subject. She always respected them, even when she asked tough questions. But Blaise’s were questions in the context of their politics and careers, not about their spouses’ extramarital affairs or gay relations, geared to the sensational, with no useful purpose. She never went too far. Unlike Susie, who had burned all her bridges and torched her career in just under twelve minutes. Blaise burst out laughing. She was grinning from ear to ear and could just imagine pandemonium at the network, as Susie burbled incoherently, paddling desperately to cover what had happened, and they cut to commercial. During the break, Blaise tried to explain to Simon that he had just seen television history at its best. Blaise was thrilled at Susie’s monumental stupidity, and even more so when the first lady did not return to the set after the break. There had obviously been a rapid conference with Charlie and maybe even Zack, and Susie made a brief statement about how sorry she was to have offended the first lady, and how grateful she was for the interview, while she looked like she was about to cry. They cut to commercial again, and then acted as though the interview had run its expected amount of time, which was not the case. It was supposed to run an hour, and the next thing Blaise saw was a taped interview she had done the previous week with a granddaughter of Bobby Kennedy who was running for a congressional seat in Massachusetts and was said to be a presidential hopeful. She was a terrific young woman, and with enough commercials, they managed to fill the hour. And unexpectedly, with the taped Kennedy piece not yet aired, Blaise had saved the day. Her star in the network heavens was assured, and Charlie called her at the end of the show. He sounded like he was ready to have a stroke, and Blaise managed not to laugh, as Simon smiled. It had been quite an evening, and thanks to Blaise a terrific show, though not the one they’d planned. It had been Charlie’s idea to run the young Kennedy piece to fill the time and save their ass, and it had.
“Holy shit, did you watch that?” Charlie asked in a shaken voice. “I damn near had a heart attack.”
“I loved it,” Blaise admitted honestly, as Charlie groaned.
“You would, you bitch.” And then he laughed. “I would too, in your shoes. She submitted a whole different list of questions to programming, and started ad-libbing on the air. You do too, but you never asked a first lady about her husband cheating on her, even when they had, or about her gay brother.”
“I’ll bet Zack loved it,” she said evilly.
“I think he’ll drive Susie back to Miami himself, or her lifeless body after he kills her. Thank God we had your Kennedy piece in the can, or I’d have been on the air singing songs from The King and I or Sound of Music. Shit, Blaise, I’m too old for this job. Tonight nearly killed me. You saved our ass,” he said again with fervor.
“I hope Zack gets that,” she said seriously, but they both knew that the first lady walking out on Susie’s interview would be top of the news the next day, and all over YouTube on the Internet for months to come. Susie Q had committed a cardinal sin that had ended her career: “Thou shalt not cause a first lady to walk off the set.”
“Tomorrow should be fun at work, for a change,” Blaise said gleefully.
“For you maybe. If I hadn’t had that piece of yours to run, my ass would be out the door too. Zack must have called me fifteen times.”
“Don’t worry. The ratings will be through the roof on this.” He knew she was right. The ratings loved television disasters.
“So is my blood pressure,” he said mournfully, and a few minutes later they hung up. Mark called her after that, and he was thrilled for her. Susie Q was history. And Blaise was safe.
She and Simon talked about it for hours afterward and Salima came in to comment. She couldn’t believe what she’d heard. Nor could the entire country as they watched it replayed again and again. It was breaking news.