Laura Bush Joins Reality TV Show

September 28, 2005Laura Bush Joins Hit Makeover Show as It Focuses on Storm Victims
By ANNE E. KORNBLUT
BILOXI, Miss., Sept. 27 - A desperate housewife in the White House? That was so pre-hurricane.
Laura Bush has moved on to reality television.
Mrs. Bush flew here on Tuesday for a cameo on "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," the blockbuster ABC show that usually does impromptu remodeling for disadvantaged homeowners but is now taking supplies to hurricane victims for segments to be shown later this year.
She met with some of the victims, passed out clothing and listened intently to tales of destruction, with a film crew following her and a boom microphone hovering overhead.
"Obviously, there are so many homes to be remade over here," Mrs. Bush said afterward.
Earlier this year, Mrs. Bush jokingly compared herself to the lonely women of Wisteria Lane during a monologue at the White House correspondents' dinner in which she referred to "Desperate Housewives." With this trip, she continued a pattern of gently incorporating pop culture into her public appearances and using mainstream entertainment as a stage for conveying the softer side of the Bush administration.
She went on "Oprah" after the Sept. 11 attacks, appeared on "Dr. Phil" during the 2004 campaign and has been on "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" repeatedly.
But with her husband still struggling to regain his political footing many weeks after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, the decision to link her with reality TV had a whiff of the daring.
It also suggested that despite an increased effort by President Bush to address the hurricane crisis - his visit to Texas on Tuesday was his seventh to the area since Hurricane Katrina hit, hers was her fifth - the White House was casting about for more creative ways to convey its concern and manage public opinion.
The appearance had been in the works for months. The producers of the show extended an invitation to Mrs. Bush in April, but it was not until after Labor Day, and the storms, that White House officials found a time and location that worked.
Part of the appeal, an aide to Mrs. Bush said, is that the segments will not run until at least November, when public interest in the hurricane relief effort may have diminished but the need for donations and volunteers will remain high.
"The coverage will start to die off a little bit, as people are getting into the hardest time," said the aide, Susan Whitson, Mrs. Bush's press secretary. Her intent, she said, is "keeping this message out there as long as possible."
Keeping the excitement up on Tuesday was no great feat; if anything, producers had to plead for calm. Storm victims who had gathered at the Biloxi Community Center, where clothes donated by Sears, a show sponsor, were being distributed, waited eagerly with their cameras for Mrs. Bush to arrive.
"People walking in here, this is a surprise for you!" one director shouted at the crowd. "Don't stand here looking like you know what's coming."
Mrs. Bush later addressed the inherent challenge for the show: selecting just one home to rebuild.
"They haven't chosen one yet," she said. "I'm trying to encourage them to maybe choose a school or a library to do, which would help everybody in the community."
And Tom Forman, the show's creator and executive producer, said he had given no thought to any political reasons the White House might have had for wanting to participate.
"The thing about making this show is I packed up and put away my cynicism a long time ago," he said.
"I think given the scope of the disaster, you throw the rules out the window," he said. "And while we're certainly a nonpartisan show, I don't think she was there as a politician or a politician's wife or even as the first lady. I think she was there as someone who cares."