New York City

April 16, 2004

A Night On The Town

New York is a wonderful town; it’s a place where interesting things happen all the time and – every once in awhile -- you get to be part of those things.

Thursday there was a “roast” of Larry Divney, President of Comedy Central, at BB King’s Restaurant on 42nd Street. It was a charity event, for the UJA, a Jewish Group that does wonderful work on a number of levels. Now I have to admit that I found it a bit strange that the UJA was roasting Larry, who is, admittedly, one of the most goyim of people.

He’s Irish; he’s, at least by heritage, Catholic. But they wanted to do a roast of him. Part of it was motivated by the fact he is retiring in June, at least from his position as President of Comedy Central, a network that is currently experiencing unprecedented success in ratings and revenue – not to mention critical acclaim. Retirement provided a nice platform for a roast.

We rode the train down from Hudson together on Monday morning. As we parted, he asked me if I would like to go. Of course I said yes.

I went to BB King’s and watched Larry be “roasted” by some of the best comics in America – as well as by several colleagues. I felt honored because I was at the table that included his family. I sat next to his wife, Alicia, who is our friend, as well as his brothers and their wives, and his children, William and Liz.

Larry and Alicia have become family. It felt good to be there to celebrate Larry’s career and to laugh with him about the foibles for which he was roasted -- most of which centered around Larry’s legendary ability to party. Beyond jokes about his alcohol consumption, each and every one at the podium also acknowledged that Larry is also legendary for his ability to love and care for people.

It was a night of corporate star studded-ness. Tom Freston was there; he’s CEO of MTV Networks. So too was the CEO of Court TV. Whitney Goit II was there, who is now the Senior Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing for A&E Networks. He’s the reason Larry and I know each other. He hired both of us. I ran into Erica Gruen, the “network doctor”, who is hired by cable networks to help them figure out what they should be doing. She told me that she had been keeping up with my recent career as she has been consulting networks for whom I have been producing.

During the course of the evening a woman we know from Columbia County, who had come to the party, had had too much champagne and so I spent some time encouraging her to drink a LOT of water.

But once recovered, she was nuzzled next to the CEO of MTV Networks on the way to the after party. That’s the kind of recovery I admire.

Which led to her, when she had revived, introducing me to someone who was our neighbor in Columbia County who was in New York City doing an assignment for the Queen of Sweden.

All of this followed a long meeting with Sir David Frost, which took up most of the afternoon, in which several of us were discussing with him the viability of getting the rights to TW3, a show he had done for the BBC and then for NBC here in the States. Three of us spent two hours in a conference room with him while he smoked a cigar that nearly killed all of us.

We thought we would die. But who is going to tell SIR David Frost that he can’t have his cigar – despite what the laws of New York City and State say?

I have mingled with the famous on many levels. I have been to one of the “events” of New York City that will be discussed in the gossip columns.

But at the end of the day, all I am really looking forward to is getting home to the little house by the creek.