FROM PIPPA TO PAULA

For anyone who catches our live pre-game webcast, we had a very special guest today: Regis Philbin.

It would be nice to think that we're a smoothly run operation, but in truth we lined up the interview with Reege about half an hour before he appeared. Our peerless stage manager guru, Bobby V., spotted Regis (class of '53) on the sideline and asked him to appear.

Regis contemplated the request for a moment. "NBC?" he asked. "I'll do it."

Regis rules. He had to wait to go on but he was totally cool about it. When I checked with him that he'd been a freshman in '49 when the Irish won a national title, he confirmed it.

"Thanks," I said. "I just wanted to be sure we did not look like idiots."
"I want you to look like idiots," he replied in classic mock-ogre fashion.

When Regis sat down on our set, the student section started a "REGIS! REGIS! " cheer, and he acknowledged them. He also, unsurprisingly, had great chemistry with our host Paula Faris. When she asked him if the student section had been that rowdy when he was here, he noted that they were too busy praying back then.

Regis left me starstruck. After his segment, I left the set to head up to the pressbox...totally forgetting that I was supposed to be on next. I left Paula completely high and dry. You think Regis would ever screw up like that? Hell, no. Paula was, as usual, completely cool with my screw-up (soon to be immortalized on "Webcast Foul-Ups, Bloopers and Blunders"). When I apologized via Crackberry, she blamed it on my age: "That's okay. Your first forties moment."