Read BEHIND THE CURTAIN BEHIND THE CURTAIN BEHIND THE CURTAIN for Free Online Page A

actor.”
    As for Jay, his ratings, which had already started to turn around months earlier, were boffo that night, ending Letterman’s late-night reign and launching Jay to the number-one spot. The Tonight Show maintained its ratings superiority from that day forward, except for the seven-month period in 2009-2010 when Conan O’Brien hosted the show. Hugh’s appearance was a powerful reminder to the producers about the double-edged nature of ratings and the importance of guests, one that we never forgot. There’s no question the Hugh Grant interview was a game changer in late-night television. But why? Here’s my best guess: most guests are either celebrities or at the peak of their fifteen minutes of fame and are expected to be entertaining and funny. Some are booked simply because they’re controversial. On any given night, no single guest had all those qualities. No one, that is, except Hugh Grant, who was famous, entertaining, funny, and controversial. And the timing was perfect for Jay. He needed something big to happen, something so different and unique that it would capture the attention of a worldwide audience in a way no other late-night show had ever done.
    But there’s more to this story. The episode that aired wasn’t the one we had originally planned. That one would have had an even bigger impact. On the night Hugh was booked, Dee Dee Myers was originally scheduled as the second guest. The former press secretary to then president Clinton had been charged with a DUI in Washington, DC, after police stopped and later arrested her for driving on the wrong side of the road. Like Hugh, she had been booked before the incident. At first, she agreed to stay in. Later, however, she got cold feet and dropped out after her lawyer reminded her the judge would probably not take kindly to seeing her on a high-profile comedy show prior to her trial. I tried to convince her that Jay would not make fun of her DUI and that her appearance would give her the opportunity to express genuine contrition, just as Hugh Grant would be doing. She still thought it was too risky, as she was facing possible jail time of up to one year. I often wonder what would have happened if she had appeared with Hugh. The show would have featured two celebrities, one from the world of entertainment, the other from politics, both offering mea culpas. Would that have made for a better program? There’s no way of knowing, but I’m certain we would have gotten even higher ratings.
    As for the defendants, prosecutors dropped the drunk-driving charges against Dee Dee after she spent twelve hours in a special alcohol-education program. Hugh was charged with lewd conduct in a public place and fined $1,180. He got back together with Elizabeth Hurley, though they would announce an amicable split five years later. His encounter with Divine Brown, which cost him $50, seemed to have little effect on his successful film career. And Divine, whose real name is Stella Thompson, was fined $1,150 for parole violations and sentenced to 180 days in jail. She eventually left the life of prostitution, thanking Hugh for “changing” her life. But her story wasn’t exactly Disney material. She parlayed the scandal into a financial bonanza, earning more than $1 million from media interviews by giving graphic details of the incident. For the record, we didn’t book her.
    After Hugh Grant, Jay became the go-to host for fallen celebrities who wanted to come clean. In 2009, singer Kanye West made an apology for upstaging country singer Taylor Swift at the MTV Video Music Awards. As she was accepting an award, Kanye grabbed the microphone from her and argued that Beyonc é was more deserving of the honor.
    “It was rude, period,” Kanye told Jay. Kanye was at a rare loss for words when Jay asked him what his late beloved mother Donda would have said about his behavior. Media critics questioned the appropriateness of Jay’s question, but he had met Donda. And he routinely