Lucianne Goldberg:

It’s been the year of living dangerously for Lucianne Goldberg, the literary agent who mistakenly assured Linda Tripp — “oops, silly me,” she always says with a twinkle in her eye — that taping telephone conversations was legal in Maryland. Bookending her journey from relative obscurity, as a successful literary agent and best-selling author of six novels, to over 600 appearances on radio and television, to her own radio talk show, is the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner. WorldNetDaily Senior Editor Betsy Gibson checked in with Goldberg to find out what kind of dish was served up at this year’s dinner, and how life has changed for her since last year’s.

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Question: How was Saturday night’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner?

Answer: Tacky. Larry Flynt was there. It was a mob scene. Everybody was there.

Q: Who was the first person you saw as you swept up?

A: Outside the dinner there was a phalanx of photographers, one of whom came over to me, introduced himself as being from the Washington Post, and thanked me for helping him make so much money this year!

The first person who came up to me at the National Review party was Henry Kissinger. He said (Lucianne’s voice drops to a perfect imitation of Henry Kissinger’s heavily accented baritone), “I’m Henry Kissinger” — like he had to introduce himself? I said, “I know that Sir!”

Q: Did you say, “I’m Lucianne Goldberg?”

A: No, but he said that as soon as he’d arrived he asked someone what my name was — he was being really charming — because he recognized me but couldn’t remember who exactly I was. Then he just started chatting to me, but I said, “Wait a minute, what did they say my name was?” and he admitted, “I still can’t remember!”

Q: So he just recognized your face from TV. He just knew you had something to do with the scandal. He didn’t know exactly what — you could have been Linda Tripp for all he knew —

A: — Or I could have been Monica. … He was being charming…

Q: Do tell, what did he talk about?

A: He just talked about celebrity, and a little bit about the scandal, but mostly about what the year must have been like for me. He was just being friendly, wanting to meet a fresh celebrity — that’s what they all want. … Celebrity is the coin of the realm right now.

Q: Was it not always thus?

A: Yes, since television, so that’s the last 30 years. Being on television makes you an “expert.” People figure if you’re on television you’re there because you know something nobody else knows — and when they’ve forgotten exactly what your supposed to know, they just assume that you know everything. You become an “insider.”

Q: Are you really any more of an insider now, compared to the relatively anonymous years? Or do most people just not realize that, aside from the quirk of fate of being the acquaintance a frightened, advice-hungry Linda Tripp called one night, that you’re very much the same person you were pre-Monicagate?

A: Yes, the only difference is that I get hustled a little bit more now because of having my radio show. Now people also see me as a conduit for their own personal publicity — secretly they want to be celebrities too.

Q: When you went to the White House Corespondents’ Dinner last year, you’d just been hatched as a celebrity —

A: — Yes, and I was still being called a liar. This time last year the president was still saying he didn’t do it.

Q: Did it take courage to go to the dinner last year?

A: Weeell. … No. Not really. Such things don’t bother me. It’s all just show biz.

Q: What about this year?

A: People couldn’t have been nicer, the press was all over me, people were like, “You won. We’re glad that since someone was going to win (in this sorry mess) it was you.” The only slight ugliness I had was from the table Vanessa Redgrave was sitting at. It was all women. So I walked by to have a look at them and one of them jumped up and ran over to me and hissed, “You ought to be ashamed of yourself.” I just smiled and said, “Oh, get a life…. Try a fella; it’ll put a smile on your face.”

Q: Was anyone’s presence a surprise to you last night?

A: Larry Flynt’s. But I thought, “How extremely appropriate that the pornographic president would have America’s pornographer present.”

Q: I know you can only attend the dinner as a guest of a news organization, whose guest was Larry Flynt?

A: John F. Kennedy Jr. He brought Flynt as publicity for George magazine. That’s what it has turned into, the person who brings the most outrageous guest gets the most outrageous publicity.

Q: Did Flynt do anything outrageous?

A: No he just sat there and drooled. I spoke to someone who was sitting at his table who told me the only person who spoke to him the entire night was Arianna Huffington. And she got up and came over from another table. I guess because they’re both Californians she came over to say, “Hi neighbor.”

Q. Did he have anybody there with him, a handler?

A: He had what looked like a paid employee to push his wheelchair, but he wasn’t seated at the table with him.

Q: So Flynt just sat there all night, alone and in silence, staring out at everybody who was no doubt staring back at him?

A: Yes. he just sat there, looking like a big frog. They had him up on sort of a raised balcony which was near the exit because of his wheelchair. And Sean Penn was at that table. Penn was the only one who lit up a cigarette — and nobody stopped him. You’re not allowed to smoke. But Penn smoked. So everyone was coming over to Penn all night to bum cigarettes.

Q: Because all the smokers were at the dinner without a pack, knowing it was illegal, yet when they saw Sean Penn light up. … Did you smoke?

A: No. I wouldn’t embarrass my hosts in that way.

Q: Who else was a surprise?

A: Elizabeth Ray, the woman who was at the center of that scandal many years ago, you know the woman I mean, she was employed by Congressman Wayne Hays, but told reporters, “I can’t file, I can’t answer the phone and I certainly can’t type.” She was there last night, looking a little the worse for wear. … But hey, wasn’t it all almost 30 years ago? Ms. Ray was in a very dramatic red ball-gown with a long red stole and lots and lots of blond hair.

Q: Did people recognize her?

A: No. I had to draw my crowd’s attention to her. I was standing with Steve Dunleavy (a columnist for the New York Post) and, of course, Steve’s eyes lit up when I pointed her out, he saw a sure-fire column. So the last time I saw Steve last night he was walking through the door with Elizabeth Ray. I’ll check his column tomorrow.

Q: Comparing this year’s to last year’s, how were you treated differently?

A: I was a celebrity this year; last year I was just an oddity. This year people wanted to talk to me, last year they’d just whisper, “That’s her,” as I walked by.

Q: Last night did you get any sense of satisfaction that you’d accomplished something?

A: No, I never think about things like that. The one advantage of becoming a celebrity in this last year is that people already know who you are, you don’t need to give that little cocktail party resume anymore. Now (even with strangers) I can just start talking about the things I care about straight away — its like they’ve already known me for a long time, I don’t have to talk about myself at all anymore — I can just talk about them.

Q: So that makes life more interesting?

A: Oh sure, I never like to talk about myself anyway.

Q: That’s true, in my experience you don’t. Were you always that way?

A: Yes. You can’t learn anything when you’re talking, and I like to know where other people are coming from…. And I really like people. That’s why I like politics, because it’s about people more than it’s about anything else. It’s certainly more about people than it is about governing.

Q: What do you feel when you’re in a room with Clinton, as you were last night?

A: That the emperor has no clothes. That he’s there under false pretenses.

Q: Can you remember back through the years to the first moment you realized Clinton was a piece of work?

A: Actually it was at one of these Washington dinners. It was at the Gridiron dinner after he was first elected. Picture this: he kept a roomful of people — the men were all in formal white tie — standing by their tables for one and a half hours waiting for him. The tradition had always been to stand by the table until the president arrived, and Clinton was that late for what was his first dressy public dinner.

Q: Had there ever been a president that inconsiderate?

A: Never. And the Gridiron Dinner is more than just journalists; it’s also the owners of newspapers — the real media magnets. Imagine: Clinton kept them all waiting for an hour and a half. It was just obscene.

Q: In a weird way was that a first example of the Clinton phenomenon to come: that, as the saying goes, the bigger the lie, the more people will believe it? That the more outrageous the behavior, the more people are just kind of stunned and go into denial. Because the reality of how much they’ve just been insulted, the realization that the country could have elected such a president, is all just too awful to metabolize?

A: No. I think what has happened with Clinton has more to do with the power of the presidency, of how enormously powerful the office is and that therefore people take whatever he dishes out. They’re still taking it!

Q: What would you say they “took” from him last night?

A: Everybody stood up and applauded him. It was the office they were applauding for, but nobody bad-mouthed him, there wasn’t even any mumbling about him.

Q: It was as if nothing had happened between last year’s dinner and this year’s?

A: Nothing except that Clinton couldn’t show up to give Mike Isikoff the award (for best reporting) because the award was given to Isikoff for exposing Clinton’s affair with an intern.

Q: Clinton could have shown up, he just didn’t have the guts to?

A: Yes, usually it’s the president who gives this award.

Q: Are you and Spikey still dear friends? (Lucianne affectionately dubbed Mike Isikoff “Spikey” because his stories were always getting spiked. And in her review in Slate.com of his new book, “Uncovering Clinton,” she wittily takes him to task on many a matter.)

A: We were never dear friends, we were respectful of each other, and I still respect him enormously.

Q: Did you speak to him last night?

A: Oh sure, he was at the next table. I walked by him and patted him on the shoulder and said, “Congratulations, Spikey.” He smiled — its all just show biz….

Q: Who were the real friends that you got to see last night that you don’t normally get to see?

A: Friends from when I used to live in Washington 30 years ago who are still around. And some of the journalists who I got to know during the scandal, like Mike Weisskopf from Time magazine, who I’d never met in person before. Mike and I got very, very friendly over the phone and he was one of the few very honest reporters. But we had met face to face, so we just threw our arms around each other like we’d known each other forever.

Q: Were any of the usual suspects missing in action last night?

A: Yes. The only way you can get there is to be invited by a news organization (Goldberg was invited by the New York Post for whom she consults) which is not that easy to do. I know some fairly heavy hitters who were dying to go, but they couldn’t get a ticket.

Q: Who?

A: Oh I don’t want to say the names of people who couldn’t get invited!

Q: Let me ask you just a few fun personal questions. I know we’ve had conversations about feminine attributes and how they factor into a woman’s career. What do you think is your best feature?

A: (Laughter) I don’t know. … I’m tall?

Q: You don’t want to repeat what you once told me?

A: (Laughter) No I do not!

Q: What’s you best emotional feature?

A: I have a great sense of humor.

Q: Who has the better sense of humor, you or Sid? (Goldberg’s husband of over 30 years.)

A: Sid.

Q: Was that why you fell in love with in him?

A. Oh sure, that and the intellect. He’s a brilliant man.

Q: Do you think that’s an aspect of Lucianne Goldberg most people fail to understand about you, how you much you revel in being a wife and mother?

A: If they don’t, it’s because they haven’t been paying any attention — and then I don’t care. I would never have gotten involved with something like this (the scandal) if I cared what people thought of me.

Q: Do you think you wouldn’t have cared so much if you hadn’t had your two boys? So many people claim to be motivated to make a better world because of their children.

A: No. I’m not as holier-than-thou as that. And my kids are in their 30s and much more capable of making a better world for me than the other way around.

Q: What was the worst moment for you in the 12 months between last year’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner and this year’s?

A: When I was flipping through U.S. News & World Report and realized that a detective had rifled through my sealed divorce files from 35 years ago and published what was in them.

Q: Did you have that ice-water-running-through-your veins cold feeling?

A: No, I had a hot feeling. It’s called fury. Before then I had not gone on television. But after I read that I thought, “OK, if you’re going to come after me, I’m going to come after you.” And I proceeded to do 680 television and radio shows after that.

Q: That’s so many. I remember you got asked back a lot because hosts found ratings usually spiked when you were on.

A: Yes, I got a lot of repeats. And I’ll tell you what it was: Almost everyone else was lying and I was telling the truth — that is so refreshing to decent people. Here was a situation in which the president and almost his whole cabinet were saying one thing and I, a virtual nobody, was coming on and saying they were all liars. I had to say it for seven months but finally he admitted it.

Q: What was the best moment of the last year for you?

A: Getting my radio show with Talk Radio Network. It took me away from the both political and literary scenes. It has meant not having to work for someone else, to make someone else famous, or someone else rich, or someone else successful — I’ve gotten tired of taking care of other people.
Now it’s my turn.

Q: Indeed it is. Is there anybody that you feel betrayed you?

A: Probably not. Because if they did, I understand why they did it.

Q: Are you able to be understanding because you’re happy in love, happy in work and financially secure?

A: What drives everybody is that you want love, and you want to be able to love back. You want a family that’s loyal and God knows mine is — we’re a team. And it’s nice to be financially secure. Everybody wants that. I guess if anyone ever betrayed me, I just felt that they were needy. They needed something that they weren’t getting from me so they figured they would make me unhappy. And they do, for five minutes, but you move on.

Q: Any regrets?

A: None.

Q: None?

A: Well, one: that I ate so much of my lobster dinner the other night at Morton’s and didn’t save more to bring home for snacking — now all I have left is a claw….