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happen to Letterman. His CBS show was number one from its premiere in 1993 until July 19, 1995, the day British actor Hugh Grant was booked as a guest on our show. That single, fortuitous appearance was literally responsible for launching Jay’s nineteen-year reign as the King of Late Night.
    Hugh, who had a long-time relationship with the beautiful British actress and model Elizabeth Hurley, had been arrested on Hollywood’s Sunset Boulevard for engaging in lewd conduct in his car with a prostitute named Divine Brown. The story immediately got worldwide coverage, and Hugh’s skyrocketing career as a bankable, likable comedic actor was on the verge of falling into the abyss. As luck—or perhaps fate—would have it, Hugh had already been booked on The Tonight Show before the scandal broke. He was coming on to promote his first major Hollywood film, Nine Months, which followed his hugely successful 1994 hit Four Weddings and a Funeral. But only days before his scheduled appearance, Hugh was having second thoughts and almost cancelled it. We encouraged him to reconsider, and Jay assured Hugh he would conduct the interview delicately, devoting only a few questions to the incident. Hugh thought about it and wisely promised to stay in, so he could own up to his transgression and publicly apologize for it. Less than two weeks after the arrest, he showed up for the interview.
    “Let me start with question number one: What the hell were you thinking?” Jay enthusiastically asked Hugh as soon as he sat down at the panel. Jay had put much thought into that question and decided to add the word “hell,” making it slightly tongue-in-cheek. The question resonated with viewers and the press and it soon became a household phrase. I have no doubt Hugh also thought long and hard about his answer, which was an unadulterated apology. He accepted full responsibility for his actions and didn’t mince his words: “I think you know in life what’s a good thing, and what’s a bad thing, and I did a bad thing.” He went on to explain that people had given him lots of advice about what to say: “I was under pressure, or I was over-tired, or I was lonely, or I fell down the stairs when I was a child. But that would be bollocks to hide behind.”
    The episode got huge press worldwide even though Hugh had reportedly asked that no journalists be present at the show. On the day of the interview, the NBC publicity department figured out a way to get around the restriction by setting up a conference call for reporters around the country and feeding them live audio of the show. Other reporters staked out the area outside the studio to get the audience’s reaction, which was mostly supportive of the beleaguered actor.
    That single appearance, combined with press accounts about it, saved Hugh’s troubled career and set the bar for the modern-day celebrity mea culpa. Until then, celebrities who were caught up in a scandal would routinely cancel interviews, attack the media for distorting the story, and go into hiding. Many of them still do that today, but not the ones who are savvy about proper crisis management techniques, which call for dealing with an emergency head-on.
    Hugh’s public apology was even referenced in a popular thriller novel called Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, published in 2012. One of the book’s main characters, Nick Dunne, makes an appearance on a talk show to express contrition for being unfaithful to his missing wife, Amy, and to convince the interviewer that he did not kill her. In a classic case of art imitating life, Nick prepares for his interview by watching the Hugh Grant interview online. Nick is impressed with the British actor’s answers and decides to imitate him, both in substance and style: “I watched that clip so many times, I was in danger of borrowing a British accent. I was the ultimate hollow man: the husband Amy always claimed couldn’t apologize finally did, using words and emotions borrowed from an