Courtney

My friend Jake Glaser's television appearances continue!  He was one of the guests on The Rachael Ray Show last Thursday.  (John Krasinski from The Office was the other guest that day.  Coincidentally, I read something about John Krasinski on Meg Cabot’s blog last week – she said a friend of hers had seen him on the street. I came really close to leaving a comment that said I had an idea of why he was in New York, but I restrained myself.  After all, I didn't even get to see John Krasinski myself.)

The taping of Jake’s segment was done over two days – the first day the field producer filmed an interview of Jake, and then shot footage of him skateboarding, meeting with someone from his mom’s foundation, and having dinner with his cousin and me.  If you watch the segment, you can see me very briefly.  I’m the girl in the green sweater at dinner (and if you look VERY closely, you can see Jake’s cousin, who is sitting next to me, looking at the ARC of MY SO-CALLED FAMILY – it’s the book’s television debut!).  Then you see me again sitting next to Jake at a conference table.  We’re passing around a mock-up of an invitation for a big Foundation event.  

Two days after that footage was shot, I went with Jake to the taping of his actual interview with Rachael Ray.  I had to take a day off of work to be there, but I decided to go anyway; after all, when’s the next time I’ll get to hang out backstage at The Rachael Ray Show?  (I would've loved to get a picture of Rachael Ray with my ARC -- if you read the blog, you know how obsessed I am with taking the ARC's picture.  But there wasn't time to do so, and it wasn't really appropriate anyway.)  So I sat behind the set with a couple of the producers and watched Jake's interview on a monitor.  They flashed childhood photos of Jake in the background.  It’s always emotional for me to see footage of Jake’s mom, Elizabeth, on the screen.  She died over thirteen years ago.  It really doesn’t feel like it’s been that long, and I loved seeing the pictures.  They showed her giving a speech, and she was wearing reading glasses that I remembered seeing her wear.  I had forgotten all about her glasses until I saw that video.

My favorite part of the piece was later, when Jake was being interviewed by Rachael.  She asked him what his life was like, and he said, “It’s the opposite of all this.”  I assumed he meant that he usually isn’t being shuttled around New York City in town cars, and being interviewed on television.  But it reminded me of something he said a few year ago, when he was speaking at a Foundation event.  He said something like, “My mom worked really hard so that I could just be an ordinary kid.”

Well, Elizabeth, he’s not exactly ordinary; but still, I think the hard work paid off.