Bruce Wolf, former host of NBC5′s “Barely Today,” says he just realized he had a brush with greatness that’s almost as great as his recent appearance on “Dateline: NBC” in which he acted as an expert on the Shaun Gayle love triangle and was seen and heard in a five-second tease right before really famous NBC personality Ann Curry introduced the show.
The new brush is actually three years old. “I just found out that I once was in a car with CBS Morning News anchor Michelle Gielan,” Wolf said.
Gielan was featured on Sunday in a filler story for the TV Prevue insert in the Sun-Times.
“I read the story about her meteoric success, and then it dawned on me. She was in the car when we both were assigned to the auto show three years ago for Fox. We chatted. Then when we got to the show she went out and did a feature inside McCormick Place. I stayed outside and did an innocent little feature, too.
“That got me fired.”
The “innocent little feature” involved the keying of someone’s car in a stunt gone wrong. Wolf was later exonerated in an arbitration procedure. And the man who tried to fire him recently left Fox after alienating about every person who ever laid eyes on him there.
“But it’s not about me. It’s about me getting to be by Michelle. She turned out to be a star. And a star on national network news. Morning news yet. I know how tough that is,” said Wolf, who was the host of the aforesaid “Barely Today,” which started at 4:30 in the morning.
“From what I read, Michelle is working very hard, and according to the story, she ‘sometimes breaks major stories. She was the first newscaster to inform CBS’ audience of Sen. Edward Kennedy’s recent death.’ I mean, like wow. The last CBS newscaster to inform the audience of a Kennedy death was Walter Cronkite, right? Although maybe Charles Kuralt was on the road in Los Angeles when Bobby died. I don’t know,” Wolf said.
“The point is, as the story says, she broke the story. It doesn’t say how, but I’m thinking that maybe she jumped off the bridge at Chappaquiddick and recovered a message in a bottle placed there by the Kopechne family admitting to the murder. That’s just my best guess,” Wolf said.
“It’s funny. Look at how our careers have diverged since that fateful ride in the car. It’s kind of like the the Harry Chapin song ‘Taxi,’ except she wasn’t my girlfriend and I wasn’t a cab driver, but she did take off for the footlights of Broadway, and I took off for NBC5.”
