Web Therapy "Publishers Cleaning House"

Season 4 Episode 4

Kip Wallice, the husband of Fiona Wallice, is just as egocentric as his wife. They make great sparring partners.

Kip is running for Congress.  He and Fiona look like the perfect political couple, both good looking, charming, and utterly superficial.

Ben, Kip’s campaign manager, and Fiona have a webcam session to discuss a few things that Fiona should say, and more importantly, should never, ever say, during campaign appearances.  Ben tries to gently guide Fiona to the politically correct positions, and Fiona listens to his advice and expresses her agreement while veering off to positions that will destroy her husband’s campaign. 

Is she really misunderstanding what Ben is trying to tell her or is she deliberately out to sabotage her husband’s candidacy?  Come on, this is Fiona we are talking about!  Do I even need to pose that question?  The poor hapless campaign manager keeps swallowing his objections—he must after all walk on eggshells around the candidate’s wife—as he moves on to the next topic.  The exchange is so funny as Fiona totally overwhelms Ben.

This scene reminds me of real-life political egotists.  Yes, I mean Sarah Palin.  In the HBO movie, “Game Change,” we see her handlers trying to guide her to be the candidate John McCain needs her to be. They have no luck—put her in front of a microphone and a TV camera and she goes rogue. 

It is great how life imitates art and art imitates life.

Be sure to stay for the closing credits.  They are interspersed with hilarious outtakes.  The actors crack each other up as they deadpan outrageous statements as this improvised show is being filmed.

P.S: The title of the episode refers to a book that Fiona has written.  Her "sugar daddy," Austen, has fired his assistant and that clears the way for Fiona to get her book published at his publishing house with a double in her advance.  (Fiona says Austen had doubled her advance; with Fiona you never know if anything she says is true or not.  One of the things that make this show so much fun is her artful self-aggrandizing lying.)