IT’S FIVE O’CLOCK on a snowy winter morning. While most employees are still snug under their covers and will likely remain there through the better part of this weather-induced holiday, Carole Brennan is awake. In fact, she is more than awake: Mayor Thomas Menino’s press secretary is already working, sitting on the floor of her South Boston bedroom, rifling through papers, juggling multiple cell phones, fielding calls from reporters. And in fact, she is more than working: she is being captured on tape by a cameraman filming Brennan’s typically atypical workday for inclusion in Boston 24/7, a six-part documentary from the producers of 2000’s acclaimed Hopkins 24/7. The new series, set to begin airing June 4 on ABC, chronicles the lives and careers of 19 unique and diverse Bostonians who help make the city run.
Taking part in such an intrusive project is not the first work-related challenge Brennan has faced. For three years, she worked in media development in nearly every country in Eastern Europe, several countries in the former Soviet Union, and a half-dozen countries in Latin America ("I’ve been to more Second and Third World countries than I have been to states in the United States," she notes). Back in the US, she was director of business development for the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, and for two years she was publisher of the TAB Newspapers. Since early 2000, Brennan’s been press secretary to one of the busiest mayors in the country.
All of which is none too shabby for a nice girl from Arlington.
Q: Tell me, first of all, why you agreed to take part in the documentary?
A: I got the phone call. The producer of Hopkins 24/7 called to sort of think through the possibility of doing a documentary on a city, and he was very interested in Boston as a candidate for that documentary. So it just grew out of that.
Q: But obviously he needed the mayor to agree to take part.
A: Absolutely. He always felt that whatever city he landed in, that the success of the documentary was very connected to a mayor’s willingness to give the documentary team very, very good access.
Q: So what was your initial reaction, when you got that phone call?
A: You know, it was a funny phone call, because it was just a person that I sort of hit it off with, so we started talking about everything else in the world before we really got to the point of his phone call. And once I realized why he was calling and what he had in mind, and having seen Hopkins 24/7 and having read about it, I was very excited about the potential. It didn’t take me long to realize what I had on the phone. The possibilities for how the city could benefit, how the mayor could benefit, were just endless.
Q: What did you think those benefits would be?
A: First of all, prime-time network television is something that, in these economic times, a municipality couldn’t afford. It just couldn’t afford this kind of exposure. So that was one of the key things. The opportunity to sort of show Boston in a way that I’m not sure the rest of the nation sees Boston — I really got the sense that the documentary-makers wanted to portray Boston in a very real way. I wasn’t ever afraid that they were looking to expose the city in any kind of negative way.
Q: When you went to the mayor with this idea, was it a hard sell?
A: It wasn’t a hard sell at all, though I’d prepared myself for a hard sell. Because as anyone who’s an observer of politics knows, this is pretty unprecedented. I mean, the access that the mayor offered the network was extreme. I’m not sure if I could really quantify it, but they got a great deal of access to the mayor: to his private thinking, to his inner circle, to his home life, to his family life — they got a kind of video access that I don’t think any other network has ever hard. And I always thought that would be a tough sell. But the mayor’s a smart guy — he recognizes the benefits. Certainly we considered the downsides — we don’t have any control over this; I mean, we really had to put some trust in the documentary-makers and the people we were working with. But the mayor quickly — it didn’t take him 10 minutes to say, "Yeah, I like this. There are lots of possibilities here."
Q: So how worried are you now, waiting for it to come out? Or excited?
A: I think I’m anxious. I think the emotion that I have right now is one of anxiousness. On two levels: personally, it’s a little weird to have yourself presented as a character; it seemed like a great idea at the time, but now suddenly the thought of millions of people watching you on TV ... it’s a little unnerving. We all wonder what people think of us at any given moment. There are a whole lot more people who are going to have opinions on me the day after this happens than did the day before. So that makes me a little anxious. But on a broader spectrum, and in a more professional way, I’m really not nervous. I think that the mayor did an awesome thing here in inviting everyone who has an opportunity to watch this into his own home, his workplace, to meet his colleagues, to understand the way a city operates, the way a city does business, the hard decisions he has to make on a regular basis, and how he makes those decisions. I mean, you can watch West Wing, you can watch Spin City, you can think you know how it’s done, but you don’t really know the balancing act that he performs every day to keep people comfortable, happy, safe, in his city. And I think it’s kind of noble. I really do.
Q: You had a camera on you in your bedroom at five o’clock in the morning.
A:. Yeah. That may not have been the best idea I ever had.
Q: What was it like having a camera follow you around? Did you ever want to say, "Fuck off, I need some privacy"?
A: I did say that sometimes. When you say you’re going to give someone 90 percent access or 95 percent access or whatever the number is, those are just words. When you actually do it, it’s a little oppressive at times. I’m not sure that if I had it to do over again, that I would do the camera-in-the-bedroom-at-five-o’clock thing. But I made a commitment that I would do this at the beginning, and I felt that I couldn’t deny them the access that might not show me in my best light. But I wish I’d brushed my hair before that part.
Q: You talked about what you think the city can gain from this. What do you think you personally can gain from being a part of Boston 24/7?
A: To be honest with you, my first thoughts about the benefits to me were around the opportunity to see how a documentary is made. I’m fascinated by documentary-making, and that this just sort of fell on my doorstep excited me. The ultimate long-term personal benefits, I really don’t know. I really don’t know, and to be honest with you, I haven’t thought a lot about it. I’ve focused more on the benefit to the mayor, the benefit to the city, and then, I suppose, lastly the benefit to me. And if I get to pick what light I’m exposed in, I guess I want to look intelligent. I want to seem like I’m a person who knows what I’m doing, who has a good relationship with her boss, and who understands the world around her. So if I show up that way, then that will be the third benefit. And if my hair looks good, that’s fine, too.
Q: Having done this, if MTV ever did an older version of The Real World, would you consider signing up?
A: You know what, I love The Real World! I was always hooked on The Real World, from the beginning. In fact, it’s probably the only reality show I’ve ever really watched. Yeah, sure I’d sign up. Absolutely.
Q: So talk to me about why you left journalism to work for the mayor.
A: He knew me as the publisher of the TABs; we also had mutual acquaintances that from time to time sat us in the corner of Doyle’s for a burger. I had mentioned to him that I was considering moving on, and that he knew better than anyone what opportunities were available in the city, and I really wanted to stay in Boston; having moved around a lot in my career, I’d begun — and that was back in ’99 — making a commitment to the city of Boston, and I told him that, and asked him to consider what that might mean to anybody he knew. And I got a call the next day from a mutual friend who said the mayor wanted to talk to me about something that he had in mind. And that day we began a couple months of dialogue about the possibilities of coming here. You know, he’s a hard guy to say no to! He’s very convincing. Though I hadn’t been champing at the bit to become a press secretary, for anyone, I had long admired what he has done in this city. Truly admired his ability to help this city move to a much more diversified place than it had been, and to really make it a welcome place for everyone. I mean, he’s insisted on that. And really, that’s what sold me in the end on going to work for him. We talked broadly about his beliefs, his politics, the media. And I thought it would be a great adventure.
Q: What do you miss most about being a journalist?
A: Well, I can’t say the sense of urgency, because the sense of urgency may be greater here. I suppose the camaraderie with my colleagues. Being around people who were like you, thought like you, were bred like you. Swearing in the newsroom is more acceptable than it is here. I suppose I feel like you can take the girl out of the newsroom, but you can’t really take the newsroom out of the girl. It was a mission — we had a mission. So I miss that part of the media. But I have a new mission.
Q: What do you miss least?
A: I’d like to say the hours, but that hasn’t really changed! That’s a tough one — the deadlines are the same, the hours are the same.
Q: You don’t have to think about ad sales.
A: I sell something different now.
Q: What has surprised you most about Mayor Menino?
A: I guess that although he is a very political being, his heart frequently overtakes his political thinking in his decision-making.
Q: And you see that as a strength?
A: Absolutely. Absolutely.
Q: What has surprised you most about working in city government in general?
A: The sense of urgency. No question about it. I hadn’t been as prepared for that as I probably should have been. It is really an urgent environment. I think the mayor sets the tone for that; whether it be a constituent call or a media call or an official call, he really places a keen sense of urgency around stuff that he thinks matters.
Q: What’s been hardest for you, in working with the mayor?
A: I guess the toughest part is giving him what he needs to hear, and not necessarily what he wants to hear. That’s hard, because you want to give people you like and people you interact with regularly what they want to hear. But sometimes you can’t, and I really feel like I owe it to him to give him what he needs to hear, or what he needs to know.
Q: How often do you think what he needs to hear is different from what he wants to hear?
A: Well, mind you, I’m the messenger of a lot of difficult news. I mean, the media and politics — it’s not like soup and sandwich. They have a little bit of an antagonistic relationship, just by the nature of the beast. So I’m often in the position of being the bearer of tough news. It’s hard being the messenger.
Q: What three adjectives do you think people at work would use to describe you?
A: Not what I want them to use, but what they would use? I think they would say fast-paced ... determined ... sarcastic. Probably.
Q: What about your friends and family — would they use the same words, or different ones?
A: I think they would use different words, but I think they would mean the same thing! I hope that my friends and family would add humorous. And I think that maybe even some of my colleagues would. If I had four words.
Q: Do you ever fully relax?
A: Not often. It’s very hard for me to relax. It’s not even necessarily fun for me to relax. But sometimes I know I need to relax. And when I do, a good movie or dinner with an understanding friend can put me in that place.
Q: When’s the last time you turned off all your cell phones and beepers?
A: Oh, God! All phones, all electronic devices off? Probably — this is the honest-to-God truth — probably two years ago this July, when I went to Barbados. I mean, even when I’m in meetings, I have my phone on vibrate, so in case it’s a number that I really need to answer, I do.
Q: What do you think is next for you?
A: Toughest question you could possibly ask me. I don’t really have a clue. I’ve always been a person who compiles adventures, and this may be my greatest domestic adventure so far. Some days I think that what’s next will be something entirely different, and some days I think I’m so addicted to the news — whether covering it or creating it — that I’ll never move far from that.
Boston 24/7 airs on June 4, 5, 6, 11, and 12, at 10 p.m., on WCVB-TV Channel 5. For a review of the series, see page 12 of this week’s Arts section. Tamara Wieder can be reached at twieder[a]phx.com
