Kitty Dukakis Gets In on Act in HBO Presidential Spoof ‘Tanner’

Where did reality first end and fantasy begin in the long election campaign? It’s hard to tell.

In this week’s convention-goofy Atlanta, however, the merging was finally completed.

The morning after her husband, Massachussetts Gov. Michael Dukakis, had received the Democratic nomination for President, Kitty Dukakis was on the 24th floor of the Hyatt Regency Hotel Thursday having a heart-to-heart chat with Joanna Buckley over coffee, fruit and croissants.

You know, Joanna Buckley? Dukakis’ former deputy press secretary who is romantically involved with Jack Tanner? You know, Jack Tanner? The former congressman who was in Atlanta himself trying to steal the Democratic nomination?

You don’t know any of this? Where have you been the last 11 episodes of HBO’s “Tanner ‘88?” Watching the unreality of actual politics instead?

Truth is, the unscripted intimate talk in the Dukakis penthouse suite between Joanna (who is actually actress Wendy Crewson) and Kitty (who is actually Kitty) was being shot for “Tanner ‘88,” the winding-down, Robert Altman-directed, Garry Trudeau-written series that has pointedly and hilariously parodied the presidential election campaign.

Or has the campaign parodied “Tanner ‘88?”

The line separating the two has always been blurry, with the fictional Tanner (Michael Murphy) being interwoven with real-life candidates and celebrities in quasi-improvisational scenes that reflect the organizational inner workings of the political process better than anything available on the evening news.

So all this week you kept pinching yourself. Here in Atlanta was a Democratic National Convention trying to be a TV show and a TV show trying to be a convention.

The HBO series perplexed many passers-by by operating from a fake “Tanner ‘88” office front on the ground floor of the CNN tower across from the Omni center. If that didn’t merit a second take, well, Tanner and his “staff” were allowed to tape on the Omni floor during the convention, where their camera and lights drew real news crews to the same delegates the fictional characters were interviewing.

Earlier in the week, moreover, Democratic state chairs and co-chairs adjourned their meeting long enough to shout “ Tan-ner ! Tan-ner !” for Altman’s camera. “We know Tanner can win!” a woman at the podium declared. Then the party officials put on “Tanner for President” buttons.

“I swear I could take a TV camera inside a men’s room at the Omni and no one inside would care,” Altman said. “No one knows what side of the glass they are on anymore.”

That seemed to apply to the largely improvised Kitty/Joanna scene Thursday.

Paul Costello, Kitty Dukakis’ press secretary, was the one who suggested that the nominee’s wife be in the show.

“I thought it was a golden opportunity for exposure and it would also give her something to do besides give 10 satellite interviews a day,” he said.

Dukakis was filled in on the story line: The previous episode found Tanner and Joanna deciding to postpone their wedding. The Kitty/Joanna scene takes place after Tanner has lost the nomination and is contemplating running as an independent, and it falls in the second half of a two-part episode that will be the show’s finale.

The plan was for Joanna to seek Kitty’s advice, even though she incredibly had remained on Dukakis’ staff until her affair with Tanner was disclosed in a newspaper.

What would Kitty say in the scene? “I don’t know,” Altman said a few minutes before starting. “I don’t much care.”

Crewson asked Costello if Dukakis would mind being called Kitty in the scene: “She is, in fact, like my own former boss’ wife.” That’s Joanna’s former boss, not Crewson’s.

“Should I give Joanna the funny thing of Michael, and say that I have a small present for her?” Kitty asked Altman. The “funny thing” was a tiny Michael Dukakis doll.

The two women were seated.

“All right, Kitty, give her the little doll,” Altman said.

And the camera began rolling as Kitty gave Joanna the doll.

Joanna: I don’t know what Jack’s going to think about it. This past week, I’ve watched you so often. You looked so good, so relaxed and so much in your element.

Kitty: I’ve been thinking about you. I know what you’ve been going through.

They talked about campaigning with their men.

Kitty: Both of us keep looking at (each other) and keep saying, “Can you believe this (the nomination) has happened?”

Joanna: When do you know when to bite your tongue and when to know what to say?

Kitty: I don’t think I’ve learned that yet.

Crewson seemed almost carried away at this point, as if seeking answers she really wanted to know. And the real politician’s real wife sounded real.

Joanna told Kitty she didn’t want to become Jack’s “adoring Nancy.”

Kitty: That is not going to happen to you, and it isn’t going to happen to me.

Joanna: Have you never felt fearful? The challenge is so great? How will I live up to it?

Kitty: There have been times when I wondered about it. I think you protect yourself sometimes, because Michael could lose the election.

Altman cut in to tell Crewson to change subjects.

Joanna: I worried somehow that I betrayed you. I picked the wrong person. . . .

Kitty: To fall in love with? I will be honest with you. Michael and I were surprised, but when we got over the initial shock, we were happy for you.

After another word from Altman, Dukakis asked Joanna if Tanner would support her husband.

Joanna: I’m sure we’ll have that discussion. It’s not for me to personally say.

Kitty: They’re too much alike not to be on the same team.

This was so absolutely convincing that at this point you half expected Rod Serling to interrupt and announce that you’d been watching “The Twilight Zone.”

Instead, it was Altman telling Crewson to ask Kitty where the Dukakis campaign was traveling next. Whereupon Kitty asked Costello. Then they resumed.

Kitty: Michael’s going to start taking Sundays off.

Joanna: Michael’s going to start taking Sundays off? I don’t believe it.

Believe it, all of it.

Altman said afterward that the conversation would end up being a 2-minute scene.

“Costello’s in heaven,” said Trudeau, who had watched from the back of the room.

“I think it shows a different side to Kitty,” Costello said. “It shows the type of person she really is. That wasn’t acting. That was as real as you get.”

When it comes to the Democratic convention in Atlanta, he may be right.