Thanks, Regis

Hey, Blog, I am back again. Got to tell you the news. A couple weeks ago I sent the first hardcover copy of Madness Under the Royal Palms to Regis Philbin’s home in New York with a cover note from a mutual friend, Rita Greenberg. A few days later Rita said she saw Regis in the gym at Mar-a-Lago and he was reading the book.

On New Year ’s Day I was at Trump’s club for a wedding brunch. Regis was there too having lunch on the patio. I know how celebrities guard their privacy in such moments. I figured he would be less than delighted if I intruded on his afternoon. But damn it all, I’ve got a book coming out and I went up to him and introduced myself. He was pleasant enough, but it was clear to me that he wanted to enjoy his long weekend, and when I left I thought I probably had blown it. So much for Regis.

Then this morning the phone starts ringing off the hook. At the end of his monologue Regis had talked about meeting me and reading my book. He showed the cover and basically gave it his imprimatur. Of course, I went to check Amazon. The book isn’t being published until January 20 and it was already at 16,000, not a bad figure two weeks before hand. Next time I looked it was 460.

You know how unusual it is for a celebrity to do such a generous thing. He wasn’t handed a script from a producer who had it written for him by some PR person. He wasn’t doing me a personal favor. He’s just an incredibly good human being. I already knew that from a distance. Now I know it personally.