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- THE WEEK, Page 25ARTS & ENTERTAINMENTJay's Jinx
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- The king of late night loses his manager after 17 profitable
- years
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- Even in Hollywood, few would recognize Helen Kushnick if they
- passed her on the street. But they all know the talented young
- comic she discovered two decades ago and guided to glory.
- Weathering a Sophoclean series of tragedies (her son's death
- from AIDS in 1983, her husband's death from cancer in 1989),
- Kushnick became the executive producer of the legendary Tonight
- show when her protege, Jay Leno, succeeded Johnny Carson in
- May. Then with an almost willful recklessness, Kushnick
- reportedly began demanding that stars who wanted to appear with
- Leno on the Tonight show had to boycott his competitors --
- especially Arsenio Hall. The blatant violation of Hollywood's
- get along-go along culture led to the inevitable: Kushnick was
- ousted from her job by NBC last week. Leno said in a release
- that her removal was unwarranted, but otherwise kept silent --
- perhaps realizing that the best thing to do at this point was
- go on with the show.
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