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Ever Wonder what a Day on the Today show is like?
This past Monday, July 24, Stacy made her 10th appearance on the daily news program. Stacy made a guest appearance to speak about “Mom-fidence!” or the lack of confidence moms often feel as parents in our perfection-driven society.
As always, Stacy was excited to appear on Today, even flying in from LA Sunday night to appear on the show bright and early Monday morning. After a late night of editing and re-editing the script for her segment, Stacy makes sure to get a full eight hours of sleep – wake-up is at 6:30 am! Stacy will be on a little after 9 am, so she is able to get a little more shut-eye than the Today crew. Lydia, a senior at Brown and Today intern, gets up at 4:30 am in order to be at work on time.
After taking a quick shower, Stacy makes last minute decisions on what to wear for her TV appearance. She chooses a tan, fitted skirt, pale pink shell and navy blue suit jacket. Although it will be a hot day, Stacy knows that the crew will have to fit her with a microphone and a jacket’s lapel on which the mike will be placed is a must. Stacy also makes sure to take an extra top and a second suit jacket with her – God forbid a splotch of foundation gets on her clothes and she has to go on camera in stained clothing.
The Today limo and driver arrives at the Essex hotel, where Stacy is staying courtesy of the show, at 7:30 am and takes her to NBC Studios. There, Stacy is given a visitor pass and taken up to the floor where both the Today show offices are as well as the Bravo! Network offices are located. The elevators are carpeted with the NBC peacock logo and the walls are lined with pictures of Saturday Night Live guest hosts. The studio in which SNL is filmed is just a stone’s throw away from the Green Room, where Stacy is led.
The Green Room, otherwise known as the waiting area for on-camera guests, assistants and interns, is a small room with two couches and a TV broadcasting the show, which has already gone live when Stacy gets there. The show for today features a gaggle of parenting experts. In addition to Stacy’s segment, Ruth Peters is there to speak about parents disagreements over disciplining their children and Anne Burt and Gayle Peterson are talking about blended families and the Brady Bunch dynamic as it effects families today.
Academy-Award winning actor and upcoming star in the soon-to-be summer hit, “Miami Vice,” Jamie Foxx is also on the show. He never enters the Green Room but rather hovers outside momentarily, surrounded by an entourage of managers, assistants, stylists and press. He looks no different than his on-camera persona – tailored, brightly hued clothes and expensive bling in both ears and on both wrists! Like most of the guests, he bypasses the food service table (a plentiful array of un-touched breakfast foods). After all, you can’t appear on live television with food between your teeth!
After chatting with the lively and interesting group of guests, including Gayle, a fellow parenting author and Club Mom member who Stacy is delighted to finally meet in person, Stacy heads over to makeup and hair where she will undergo her transformation from Mom to Glama-Mom! Already being worked on by Gilles, the French-speaking hair magician, is Bobbie Thomas, the Today show’s resident fashion guru and regular Style network and In Touch magazine correspondent. The teeny-tiny style trendspotter is outfitted in a teeny-tiny buttoned vest and plaid print Bermuda shorts. She is covered in jewels, including a gold bracelet that looks just like a silver one Stacy owns. Bobbie is busy frantically touching up the last of her hair and makeup before she heads out to do her segment, “What’s Hot for Summer,” and in the interim explains that she is talking about Crocs as the new fashion statement, although she herself has yet to come to terms with wearing them. If you are new to Crocs they are basically a slipper-like shoe that looks like a cross between children’s neon jelly sandals and an orthopedic clog.
With Bobbie gone, Gilles and Mitch, the fabulous makeup artiste, set to work making Stacy go from “Hot, Sexy Mom” to “WHOA, Hot, Sexy Mom!” Stacy loves the job the two have done and sings their praises. Meanwhile, Anne-Marie, the producer of Stacy’s segment, pops in to check on Stacy and make sure she’s all set to go. Anne-Marie has undergone a transformation herself that morning; she is all dressed up in a floor-length summery dress to appear on-air as a model for the “What’s Hot” segment. Producer and model? It’s all in a day’s work, apparently.
Within no time, Stacy is escorted out of the Today show offices by Lydia, the intern, and taken to the Today show stage outside where she waits behind the cameras for her cue. On her right, Campbell Brown is talking from her desk post followed by Natalie Morales speaking on Stacy’s left. During commercial break, Stacy heads over to her seat in front of the Today show cameras and is greeted with a big hug by Natalie, the anchor with which Stacy will be speaking about “Mom-fidence!” The two chat away while Natalie is fitted with her mike and then…
The five-minute segment feels like it’s over in five seconds! Stacy wonders if she got in every last piece of advice, every personal mom confidence (or lack thereof) anecdote, and if she looked okay while doing it! On the way back to the offices, crew and production assistants people congratulate her and tell her she did an awesome job. Stacy gathers up her things, gets in the limo and heads to La Guardia to take an 11:30 am shuttle to Boston. On the way there, she takes calls and e-mails from friends and family congratulating her and assuring her that she did great. Stacy’s first call out? Her grandmother, who she promises to call after every Today show segment. And Grams loved it!
What a whirlwind! And after a long day and night, Stacy can’t wait to do it all over again!