Rielle Hunter’s interview with Chris Cuomo on “20/20”? It pushed her self-aggrandizing book, “What Really Happened,” all the way up to 94 this morning on amazon. com. Not exactly a pre-publication swarm for the cash registers. Chris Cuomo, I thought, did a pretty good job of looking incredulous throughout the proceedings. He was skeptical and didn’t hesitate to push Hunter on her series of ridiculous answers. And all of that seemed highly improbably given that ABC has obviously made some kind of overall deal with Hunter: she’s on “Nightline,” “Good Morning America,” and “The View” next week. I’m surprised she didn’t also get a walk on on “General Hospital.” She doesn’t seem to mind being cross examined. Whatever deal she’s made, she’s happy– to be famous, to have helped wreck John Edwards’ life, the life of his kids, and to speak negatively about his dead wife, Elizabeth, at length.
It’s utterly fascinating, as long as it’s free. Pay for her book, “What Really Happened”? Not on your life. Why would anyone give this woman money, especially after zillionaires Bunny Mellon and the late Fred Baron did just that? It’s not like it helped their reputations. I say, the confessions of Rielle Hunter–real name Lisa Jo Druck–are best obtained without opening your wallet.
But look–“20/20” did gloss over a lot. Asked why Hunter put up with Edwards and his shenanigans, she said she something about coming from a wealthy Southern family. No one mentioned the infamous scandal involving her late father allegedly attempting to collect insurance money after having her thoroughbred horse killed. That was just erased. Or that Hunter is not her name. It’s the last name of her first husband, a lawyer who does not talk about her. The ABC overview is that she had a “career” in Hollywood. That’s one way of putting it. This much we know: She was a regular visitor to the set of the TV show, “24.” She made a short film no one ever heard of in 2000 called “Billy Bob and Them.”
There was no mention, really, of her hard partying Druck days. Of her life in New York in the 1980s. Of Jay McInerney’s bad short novel, “Story of My Life,” and how the character Alison Poole is based on her.
There was a good story about Hunter on abcnews.com back in 2008: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/lives-rielle-hunter/story?id=5560261&page=2#.T-VnLvU1Oa8. I wrote about her, too, right before that: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,400663,00.html
Also: no mention how in 2009, after the Baron and Mellon dried up, she and baby Quinn were abandoned by Edwards. That she lived with her best friend and the friend’s family in New Jersey, waiting for Edwards to pony up. There was a long stand off. And Hunter/Druck has not actually held a job or earned a paycheck since at least 2006 that didn’t involve Edwards. She wasn’t employed when she met him, then she went to work for his campaign, and then a series of people funded her. Now she wants us to fund her by buying the book. I think not.
