There was a link on my homepage today that said something like, “Larry King Has Interviewed The Royal And Reviled.” Unaware of any book Larry King has coming out, I figured he must have died and that, ironically, news of his passing must have been bumped for the bigger story of the week. So I clicked the link and it turned out there’s going to be a tv special honoring his 50 years in journalism. There was one quote in the article that really got my attention. It was from “60 Minutes” correspondent Mike Wallace who said about King, “He also works so damned hard. There’s a reason he has been around so long, and it’s that he does the homework. This, too, is key: He never sets out to embarrass anyone — ever.”

I thought it was interesting because Larry King once embarrassed me (cue the blurry squiggly lines)…

Back when I attended the University of Hawaii, the managing editors for newspapers across the country held a convention in Waikiki and our journalism department was assigned the task of creating a daily newspaper covering the convention’s events. Certainly the most interesting assignment I was given was on the topic of the right to privacy in the media. I interviewed leading experts in the field and a couple well-known victims. One was Patricia Bowman, the woman who accused William Kennedy-Smith of raping her and whose private information was aired throughout the media. I remember being surprised by how different she seemed in person from the way she’d been portrayed in the media: rather than some drunk, party-girl floozy, she came across to me as soft-spoken and intelligent. I knew instantly that Kennedy-Smith was guilty (do I need the wink)? The other victim I interviewed (via phone) was former tennis star Arthur Ashe, who had been forced to reveal to the world that he had AIDS when he learned that USA Today was going to publish that information. Ashe died shortly thereafter.

Ok, Larry King had nothing to do with any of that, I just thought it was interesting. Here’s the Larry part:

Larry King was the keynote speaker for the convention and even though I wasn’t covering the event, I decided to take advantage of my press pass and listen in. I took a seat at an empty table in the back corner and a short time later Larry joined me. I probably gave him a polite nod or maybe a simple “hi” like I would anybody else but I typically leave celebrities alone. However, he started chatting me up. Once that door was opened, I thought, “Here’s my chance to get an exclusive!” (Yeah, I was a real fucking Lois Lane. What a dork). We talked for awhile until he was introduced to speak.

He began his speech by saying something about how journalists are always on the job. He then said, “Like just now, I was speaking with this young journalism student named Jenée and there I was trying my hardest to flirt with her and she’s drilling me with questions like she has a five o’clock deadline.”

Now, I am not one who is easily embarrassed- I take almost everything in stride. But the entire room turned in my direction (oh, they all knew exactly who Larry had been talking to) and they were roaring with laughter. I was absolutely mortified. Sure, if it happened today I’d think it was hilarious but I was still a kid at the time. This was to be my future career and I was forever going to be remembered as the wide-eyed journalism student Larry King hit on even though he was like 150 years old (clearly thinking quite highly of myself that anybody would remember me at all). I dug out as soon as the speech was over but not without hearing one or two “Hey, you could do worse than Larry King” jokes.

So there you go, Mike Wallace. Larry King may not have set out to embarrass me but he certainly succeeded.