(With the whole David Letterman scandal going on, I figured I would put up an old post again about when I interviewed for the show.)
Growing up in New York, you become a go-getter. I went to art high school in Manhattan (the rival of the Fame school) and majored in theatre arts. In my senior year I decided to do an internship in entertainment. I sent my resumes out and got interviews at MTV and David Letterman. The interviews were within a week of each other.
I entered the MTV offices not even nervous. The reception room was decorated with music posters and looked very high tech. Loud music was blaring so I had to scream my name out to the receptionist. A short brunette woman came out to greet me. Her name was Marnie. She showed me around the offices and they are what you would expect. Clean, airy, and a funky vibe. Like all the record companies I've been to since. I even remember her showing me the tiny little room of videotapes that was for VH1. "That's a new channel we've started up", she told me. Boy, I bet she didn't realize that it would erupt into a big channel, gracing us with the breasts of Brigitte Nielsen today. (Thanks VH1!) In all, I thought the interview went pretty smoothly.
Next came the David Letterman interview. At that time, the show was still at NBC. Compared to my time at MTV, this was going to be a totally different experience. First of all, their offices looked like crap. The carpets and entire decor were dingy. Fox TV must have used the same interior designer. A tall woman named Mary was the interviewer. She sat me down in a stuffy office. Papers everywhere so you couldn't see her desk. She asked me questions on why I wanted to intern there, blah blah blah. I answered confidently exhibiting my New York prowess-ness (I made up that word). Growl! A pimply faced NBC page called to get Mary out of the room. She excused herself and I was left there in the dungeon. As I was looking around in this tiny office, I felt my left eye go funny. It was my contact lens! It was either falling out or getting lost in my eye! I blinked my eye hoping some tears would place the lens back onto my cornea.
As I was sitting there blinking like a retard, I heard "Is Mary around?". I turned my head and saw David Letterman standing at the doorway. He had on a t-shirt and khakis. While squinting my left eye and managing a half smile, I answered "yes, she's coming right back." He looked at me funny and said "okay", displaying his famous gap tooth and walked away.
That was so embarrassing!! Can you imagine? You meet the head star of the TV show you want to work for and a stupid contact lens gets in the way! I was miffed. When Mary returned I asked where the bathroom was. I ended up losing the lens. It either fell on the floor or was lost and had traveled up to my forehead area. I left the offices with Mary telling me she would let me know either way. When I got home, I got a call from MTV telling me I was hired. I didn't know what to do. I didn't want to lose out if I said no. MTV was getting big and I was a music freak anyway. So I said yes to working there. It worked out because I didn't get the Letterman job after all. I blame Bausch & Lomb for this!
The MTV program I worked for was called "120 Minutes". My boss was English and he was the producer. His name was Dave Kendall. Dave liked to wear the same three suits each week. They were very colorful and very eighties looking. He also liked to wear berets. I was asked to type up the daily playlists and basically be a gofer. You know, go for this and go for that. Yep...a go getter I was!
Once my boss asked me to come to the studios with him to help out with a taping. It was for Veejay Alan Hunter's show. Martha Quinn was also there and I noticed she was shorter than me. During filming, Alan asked me to go get beers at the corner shop. He gave me money and said I could get one too. I was only 17! However, I had no problems buying the beer and returned to a grateful veejay. Alan ended up drinking all the beers in between takes. I think he got quite drunk. The crew told me it was his Friday ritual. So for those of you who watched him on MTV in those days, NOW you know why he always looked so happy!
So MTV stole me from David Letterman. Well, that's my fantasy anyway. You lost your chance Dave! I could have been a kick ass intern! Oh and by the way, I've been in Letterman's studio audience twice. Once when Kevin Kline was a guest and the second time we didn't know who the hell anyone was, and neither did Dave!
