MY KIM KARDASHIAN STORY:   “DON’T ASK, DO TELL”

“How far can we go?”

BY BRIAN O’KEEFE

“Are you guys OK? Are you getting what you want?”, she softly whispered with a deeply caring and concerned look. Kim Kardashian was talking to me. And Lara Spencer, one of my shows hosts…who before my very eyes grew from a local TV reporter into a network anchor and master-ess of the live interview, every morning on Good Morning America but even more notably at the Oscar pre-show in March.

Lara and I joined Miss Kim on a fly by day day…a very long one that started and ended in Los Angeles with San Francisco sandwiched in the middle and a flight with the Kardashians on a private jet. Just them …the three K’s….one publicist and us…and our crew.

We had taken a break in our Sears fashion line shoot and Kim could see my serious drama-filled “I’m not getting what we want” producer face. She reads people well. And on the plane…Kim was silent as a mouse, courteous to a point, almost like she wanted to not disturb us…guests on HER aircraft….and sat up front not really talking to anyone. Unlike her sisters, one of whom was almost boisterous bordering obnoxious. I’ll let you guess which one. They all looked great …but Kim is gorgeous in person. I don’t remember a word Kourtney uttered. Khloe ate and talked about what she ate..of which she ate a lot…although it looked like healthy food.

But I won’t forget how warmly kind Kim was. She liked Lara..(who doesn’t) and I think they are friends but when you are granted access to big names..a big publicist plays big, bad cop and talks in the language of “NO”…and that day the big “NO” was “NO questions about the wedding or the ring AT ALL.” Now this was the last wedding –not the Kimye Eurofestival that happened last week.  

It was a few weeks before those nuptials and the stern publicist warning came mid break. To Kim, Lara explained the stern warning we got about the wedding or the gargantuan ring on her hand that could slice and dice anything Khloe wanted to eat that day….even though Lara was going to ask about the wedding no matter what the publicist said. She didn’t have to answer questions she didn’t want to. Kim did even better: she whispered and looked us both straight in the eye followed by a wink: “I’ll take care of you.”  

The interview continued. And even before Lara could ask her last question…about the wedding..Kim delivered the goods as a true Kardashian who knows her own showmanship..and what her audience wants, “Lara, have you seen this?” ..opening the friendly door to that area…completing our interview. We left San Fran with bacon. Don’t tell Khloe.

Access changes, as years go by with the ocean of content and outlets news and non news and quasi news and iphone videocameras. Changing what we see and blurring the lines on the way. When access is given: take it and don’t ask too many questions about it.

 My rule was always: Never ask…in terms of where your cameras can go. Growing up at “48 Hours” one of the truly most exciting moments of my career was to be assigned to follow Paul McCartney backstage for what we call broll. Video of the character of focus to be used to edit with an interview. A big important producer got the plum assignment of producing a big interview with Sir Paul. But I lucked out with the best assignment..hanging out backstage with the McCartneys..Linda and the kids. It was the early 90’s. It was him and Wings. And Linda and the kids. And me.

I remember the roadies and concert crew moaning about the food backstage…veggie burgers and not the delicious ones with oil and fat added…the rabbit food ones. Linda wanted everyone who traveled with them to eat healthy and vegan it was.   When she died a decade later I recalled this horrible irony that she would die of one of the most aggressive forms of breast cancer yet for decades she ate healthy and carefully avoided carcinogens at all costs and cared very much about everyone around her…to do the same.

Another tid bit: By the time the audience winds down after the last encore, Paul, Linda, and the kids are at least a mile away….in a Greyhound tourbus. A security precaution. He is a former Beatle, after all.

But back to my “Don’t ask, don’t tell” rule. As my crew and I are with him, leaving his dressing room lounge…we head down the ramp to the stage and I hear the heavy noise of the Chicago venue. My cameraman whispers loudly, “How far can we go?” to which I respond with fingers to my lips and a stern mutter: “DON’T ASK” …to which Sir Paul McCartney stops in his tracks, smiles…points at me: “Smart man, Brian is! I like that!” and we carried on down the plankway to the stage.

What I saw, HEARD and felt I’ll never forget for the rest of my life. An enormous dark abyss filled with lighters lit like a blanket of candles, a roaring sound greater than a bevy of 747’s, the pure raw hyper-electric humanity excited to see this one man…(and me and my crew) walk on the stage. My clothing shook from the vibrations. Deafening to all my senses would be an understatement. Ummm…blowaway,  to say the least.

The only other time I saw mass humanity at an even greater scale was traveling with Pope John Paul the Second’s motorcade to a Newark, NJ cathedral and London anywhere and everywhere the week of Princess Diana’s death. And following much littler regular humans, (not really) Clooney and Pitt at an Oceans Something premiere event and in the same situation with the crew right behind them walk to the lined up crowd –thousands on Hollywood Boulevard outside the Graumman’s Chinese theatre. Even Matt Damon, ever so polite and sweet and normal cool, stood back in awe at the roar and hysteria and deferred to them and let them bask in their glow and sign autographs.

But in a much simpler and most definitely quieter situation, I’ll always remember the quiet giant, Kim, ever so kind to people who worked all day to put something on television about her and her sisters, courteous and professional friendly… nary a word with a nod, a wink and a whisper.