Sacha Baron Cohen, Ann Curry, Suzanne Somers and the death of the Fat Cat

As the title suggests, today was a busy day.  We had Sacha Baron Cohen, or the Supreme Leader, in today as a guest, promoting his new movie The Dictator.  He arrived with some bodacious bodyguards, and in classic dictator fashion (I suppose?) was permitted to roam around the building until his interview with Matt Lauer.  Luckily for me, as he's one of the few celebrities I'd like to see, he ended up commandeering the control room for a segment promo. Matt introduced the plug by explaining that he'd shot our executive producer and was now running the show, which I admittedly chuckled at.

I spent most of today transcribing a phone interview with Suzanne Somers, however, which was quite interesting.  I was doubling down by doing that and working the front desk, so I was interrupted often by callers, but I was able to finish the transcription by the early afternoon.  The most pleasant interruption came from Ann Curry, however, who jokingly asked if I was working or listening to music while I was transcribing - I had my roommate's Beats headphones on, which are certainly overkill for this assignment, but the only thing I had to use.  I told her about the interview, and she said she was going to interview her later this week, and it must be the pre-interview.  We chatted a bit about what she'd be interviewing her for, and it didn't hit me until afterwards how candid and pleasant that conversation was.  I guess it shouldn't surprise me at this point, but even the biggest names I meet here at NBC are very down to earth.

In other news, that 39 pound cat died today.  It reportedly was having breathing problems.  It goes to show there is a limit on how fat a cat can be, a limit which transcends (or consumes?) the other 8 lives they usually get.