they need more than a makeover

So today (Sunday) I was sent to interview the Ali family of Queens, stars of that evening’s ‘Extreme Makeover: Home Edition’. Only, no one in the office had thought to set this up ahead of time … and they apparently have an unlisted number. So I just show up at their doorstep around 6:30 p.m., ahead of the show. Dean, the guy who answers the door, pretty nicely tells me that contractually they can’t talk until after the show has aired – and afterwards they are planning on having “family time,” couldn’t I come back tomorrow? (Words no newsman wants to hear).

So I wait until after the show airs at 9, knock on the door again. One of the teenaged sons answers. I’m real apologetic, sorry to bother you, any way I could just talk to somoene for like two minutes or so. He leaves and comes back and says yeah, his mother will talk to me. Then Dean comes barrelling out of the door toward me, kinda pushing me a bit with his body (he’s a big guy). “You’re some kinda aggressive reporter, aren’t you?” he says. I think he’s just roughhousing, kidding around, but then I realize he’s actually really pissed — and pretty drunk. Stunned, I kinda sidestep him and start to apologize, saying I didn’t mean to bother him and was just trying to do my job. “You interrupted a party!” he yells. “There’s a family reunion going on here!” As some other relatives sorta hold him back, he yells, “I’m gonna fuck you up!”

Wow. I had no enthusiasm for this story to begin with — and it certainly isn’t worth this. I walk off. Incredibly, he says something about how we can call him tomorrow. “Forget it,” I say over my shoulder. “There isn’t going to be a story!”

But actually, there is, dammit – we’ll have something in Monday’s paper written just off the TV.

I call my editor from the corner of the block, just in case any family member wants to come over and apologize. But no one does.

Needless to say, the experience has left a bad taste in my mouth about these something-for-nothing makeover shows … maybe there’s a good reason they were living in a dump of a home …

UPDATE: Lucy Ali called me today (11/1) to apologize, which i accepted, and i take back what i wrote in anger above.