Posts Tagged ‘Callista Gingrich’

Dave Konig

Republican Date Night

by Dave Konig

Newt Gingrich is much taller in person than he is on TV. The lovely Bride of Konig (author of I Wear The Maternity Pants In This Familywww.susankonig.com) and I were invited to a screening of the Newt and Callista Gingrich – produced documentary Ronald Reagan Rendezvous With Destiny the other night, and we got to meet the former Speaker of the House. For some reason I always thought he was on the short, roly poly side. TV’s short, roly poly is, in person, tall, barrel chested and imposing. This is, oddly, the exact opposite of me. On TV I am tall and thin, in person I’m short and fat. 

Reagan, Judy Garland, Henry Fonda, Boris Karloff, Gene Kelly

Reagan, Judy Garland, Henry Fonda, Boris Karloff, Gene Kelly

This rare date night out without the various Spawn of Konig, naturally coincided with a gig for me: as my wife was settling into the Director’s Guild Screening Room on W. 57th. 72nd street performing a comedy sketch with TV host extraordinaire Bill Boggs in his live show Talk Show Confidential. The cue for my sketch with Bill is the end of his Richard Nixon anecdote. Boggs tells a very funny story of being a teen-aged intern in the 1960s on a talk show, and the guest is Richard Nixon. Boggs is assigned to Nixon, to make sure Nixon gets to the set on time. En route, Nixon makes a pit stop. Young Boggs is then confronted with his first major, television talk show crisis: how to tell the imposing former Vice President that he’s not only about to go on camera with his fly open, but it’s a “Grand Mal Unzipping,” the kind where your shirt tail is hanging out of the fly. (more…)

John Nolte

DVD Review: Ronald Reagan: Rendezvous With Destiny

by John Nolte

Hosted and narrated by Newt and Callista Gingrich, “Ronald Reagan: Rendezvous With Destiny” looks at the life and varied careers of America’s 40th President and would make an excellent primer for anyone interested in what made the great man tick and the incredible legacy he left behind. Well paced and insightful, the 90 minute documentary presents a number of brand new interviews with, to name a few, Bill Kristol, Fred Barnes, James Baker, Linda Chavez, Bill Bennett, P.J. O’Rourke, Michael Reagan and Edwin Meese, along with ABC newsman Sam Donaldson, who had the White House beat during Reagan’s two terms, biographer’s Douglas Brinkley and Lou Cannon, and Poland’s Lech Walesa.

While Reagan’s childhood, Hollywood career, and two terms as California Governor are covered, the meat of the focus is on Reagan’s handling of the Cold War. Through the interviews and Reagan’s own handwritten diaries, we’re given an insider’s look at the beat by beat history in what proved to be, much to everyone’s surprise, including many of Reagan’s allies, an astonishingly successful quest to put the Soviet Union on “the ash heap of history.” (more…)