Brad's Status Page #3

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Okay, stop. Troy, Troy, seriously, stop.

Okay.

Whoa! Troy!

That night, I imagine

Troy getting into Harvard,

and the satisfactions it would bring.

Hey! Hey, guys!

Hey!

I got in!

I got in!

Oh! Harvard!

Hey!

All right, buddy!

Harvard!

Not a bad place to go to school.

No.

Wow.

This is where you go.

Let's go. Let's go.

You have a son or a daughter?

A son, yes. He's interviewing.

Mine, too.

Yeah, my son is a, uh,

very talented musician.

Keyboards.

Pianist.

Yeah.

Also composes his own music, so...

Wonderful.

Looks like he's gonna have

a lot of decisions to make.

Mm.

But I'm pretty sure Harvard is,

uh, gonna be in the running.

Oh, you think Harvard's got a chance?

Uh, what does your son do?

What does he do?

He's a student in high school.

Right. Okay.

Hey.

What's going on? Is it over?

Uh... no, I got the day wrong.

What?

I got the... I got the day wrong.

It's yesterday.

Yesterday? What do you mean?

Yeah, I mean, I don't know,

I f***ed it up. It was yesterday.

Well, did they... did they give

you a time to come back?

Um... no, I mean, I think

they're really booked up.

But they said, like,

I can just do an alumni interview

back in Sacramento.

No. No.

No, you want to do it

with one of these guys.

I mean, these are the guys that decide.

Right?

Dad, I'm just gonna go on the tour.

It's not... this isn't a big deal.

It's a big deal. I'm gonna talk to them.

- What? You don't need to talk to them.

- Yes, I do.

Listen, we didn't come all this way

for you to interview in Sacramento.

Excuse me. Sir? Hi.

Oh, I'd love to be able

to accommodate you guys,

but our schedule's been set

for months now.

I want you to get a sense of my son.

Harvard is his first choice...

Hey, Dad, it's okay.

He's a pianist. He does community service.

His counselor says he's Harvard material.

It's not necessary to interview here.

Alumni interviews are just as effective.

Well, I... Okay.

I mean... I mean,

I know how important face time is.

You know, we're here. Come on.

Don't shine us on. I mean...

Dad.

No. Can't you just sit with us

for ten minutes?

I mean, he's right here.

What are you guys doing right now?

I have a staff meeting, sir.

Dad, please,

please, please, please stop.

- Please stop.

- Okay. I'll stop, okay.

Okay. All right. Thank you.

Thank you. Come on, let's go.

Dad, what the f***? You think

arguing with the admissions officer

is gonna help my chances?

He won't remember this.

I think he will.

You know, I don't understand.

How can someone who has the brains

to get into Harvard

not have the brain to remember

what day he made an appointment

so he can get into Harvard?

I'm sorry. Can we please talk and, like,

walk somewhere else, please,

'cause they're about to start a tour.

So what?

So, I don't want everybody

seeing me getting bitched-out

by my dad, okay?

I'm not bitching you out.

I'm trying to solve a problem here.

I know you think you got this in the bag,

but this is Harvard, Troy.

Even geniuses get rejected.

Oh, my God.

You realize you're competing

with kids from Hong Kong

and everywhere, okay?

You're a white kid from the suburbs

without a sob story,

and you're not even a legacy.

We're the underdogs here.

We need to do everything we can.

Dad, I'm about to flip

the f*** out. Please shut up.

Okay, let me think. Just...

Okay, why don't you go

on the tour, and I'm...

I'm gonna, um...

What are you gonna do?

I'm gonna make some calls.

Just don't do anything uncool.

Hey.

Hey. So, Troy messed up,

and we're at Harvard,

and he doesn't have an interview.

He got the day wrong.

Do we know anybody at Harvard?

I really want to get him an interview.

I mean,

I just want them to meet him.

Oh, who's at Harvard?

Like, um, like, uh, like, like...

Yeah, yeah, like, um...

- Like...

- Like a dean.

Babe, Harvard is Troy's first choice.

Did you know that?

- Yeah, yeah.

- And his counselor thinks he can get in.

Did you know that?

- Yeah.

- Who do we know at Harvard?

Uh, I don't know. I mean, I got to think.

Like, um... Toni Morrison.

Toni Morrison?

You know Toni Morrison?

- No.

- No, no, she teaches at Princeton.

Melanie, what the f***

are you talking about, Toni Morrison?

I don't know. Who would I know at Harvard?

- Um...

- Uh, just, you know people in government.

Someone must have gone to Harvard.

I mean, think.

- It's Troy's future.

- Okay.

Um... Oh!

Craig Fisher teaches

a class there. Doesn't he?

Uh, what? No.

Does he?

Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I read that somewhere.

He's, uh, a visiting lecturer

or something.

He drives up from DC.

Uh, no. He lives in New York now.

Okay, well, he drives up

from New York, then.

I mean, I'm pretty sure he lectures there,

teaches a class, something.

Oh, f***.

What?

No, I think you're right,

now that you mention it.

Sh*t.

What's wrong?

I just... I don't want to call him.

Why not?

Damn it.

What's the big deal?

All right, all right.

I'll call you later, okay?

Okay. Can I talk to Troy?

Working up the courage

to call Craig,

I remembered the first time

I'd seen him on TV.

I'd like to welcome

Craig Fisher to the conversation.

He is a former White House press secretary

who now works at the Heller Institute.

He's also the bestselling

author of Political Animals.

Craig, who's responsible

for this congressional...

It was like a ghost

I'd conjured to haunt me.

...castrates the forefathers.

Um, but we have a system,

for better or for worse,

in this country of checks and balances,

to make sure

that there is no one demagogue...

It wasn'tjust a fleeting jealousy.

It was real pain.

Why is it so painful?

What was wrong with me?

I thought about the last time I saw him.

...exciting about this

is it's an opportunity...

We'd both been in New York

for different reasons

and decided to meet up.

I'd just started my nonprofit

and was full of enthusiasm.

...and so what we would do

is kind of be a clearing house

for that, and kind of a...

like a matchmaking service,

social media matchmaking organization

that would find the organizations

that need the money, find the people

who want to give money,

bring them together and...

I was hoping Craig might want

to get involved in some way,

offer up his famous friends.

Even donate money.

But he never took the bait.

Back in Sacramento,

I decided to be more direct.

I sent him an e-mail asking him

to come onto my board of directors.

I wrote about the worthiness of the cause

and my deep respect for Craig

and how much it would mean

to me personally.

Mrs. Cohen said we have to bring

all the science stuff to school by Friday.

Oh.

So, we got to figure that out.

But I never heard back.

Well, I do like whales a lot,

so, we could study the anatomy...

You know, they say politics

is show business for ugly people.

Any whiff of show business,

I think people really respond...

In fact, I never heard

from Craig again.

Aw, f*** it.

Your call

cannot be completed as dialed.

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