Publicity for One Who
Exposed an Evangelical
By CAMPBELL
ROBERTSON, NYTimes on the Web, November 14, 2006
What they say is true: To rise
above the din in this publicity and hype-glutted city, it takes a real hustler.
One need look no further than seat E112 at the Cort Theater last night.
For there, attending the opening of “The Little Dog Laughed” at the invitation
of the producers, sat a man from Denver named Michael Jones.
Mr. Jones was not familiar with “Little Dog,” a play about a gay Hollywood star,
the male escort he falls for and the agent who tries to keep it a secret.
But Mr. Jones knows from escorts, having been one for 20 years. And he
knows from exposing secrets, as the one who, on the verge of the election and
with quite a splash in the press, told of his three-year, let’s-call-
it-professional relationship with the Rev. Ted Haggard, the evangelical leader —
and up until his dismissal a week ago — senior pastor of New Life Church in
Colorado Springs.
About show business, though, he doesn’t claim to know much.
“In high school, I was Stanley in ‘Streetcar.’ That’s about it,” he said
before the show.
That did not stop one of the play’s producers and his friend from deciding that
Mr. Jones’s presence would be a delicious buzz generator. Through a friend
in Denver, they managed to track him down at a local coffee shop.
Mr. Jones, who has become a minor celebrity (he has considered writing a book
but hasn’t been approached), was already scheduled to be in New York for an
appearance on the Dr. Keith Ablow Show.
And so here he was at the opening, the flashes going off, the photographers
shouting, and the press agent taking him by the arm and steering him through the
crowd to the gossip columnist Cindy Adams.
“I was an escort, a gay escort,” Mr. Jones explained to her patiently.
This is not what he was expecting when he decided to talk to the local Denver
press, causing havoc in Mr. Haggard’s life, his own life and, some would say,
the national election. Mr. Jones said he did what he did because of Mr.
Haggard’s high profile campaign against gay marriage.
But deep in the heart of the most solemn matters, there lies a public relations
opportunity. And while the reporters and opening night guests chattered
with excitement, Mr. Jones looked genuinely perplexed.
“I’m here because of a serious situation,” he said, at the crowd of
photographers he had just walked away from. “So was I supposed to smile?
I wish they’d have told me what to do.”
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