C.J., Star Tribune
Former TV production exec Diane Piette said she didn’t ask St. Thomas to give her a full scholarship to law school.
But it was offered, because of her terrific LSAT score, and she took it. That has raised eyebrows among some members of her socio-economic set.
What happened to giving scholarships to people who need the money?
As the wife of Ed Piette, outgoing GM at WCCO-TV and former GM at KSTP-TV, the family has means. In 1998, they bought a home in North Oaks for $937,000. The guess is that Ed had to be pulling in $300,000 to $400,000. Now the Piettes are headed to the East Coast, where he’ll be GM of two stations in Boston and one in Providence. Conservatively speaking, that ought to earn him at least $600,000 a year.
And as the woman behind DCP Productions, Diane probably made good money, too.
“You would have to ask [St. Thomas why], but I think it was because I had a 15-year career in broadcast television and video production. I think what they were looking for was diversity of past life experience,” she said.
Tim Busse, the Law School’s PR guy, said: “The financial consideration isn’t taken into account. It is not need-based in any way. As a brand new law school unaccredited, there was a good-size pool of financial aid to attract outstanding students. It was a risk for students to come here. Over the course of this three, four, five years, that pool of scholarships is being reduced gradually because we are now accredited. There isn’t that pressure to entice the top students with financial aid that there was in the early years.”
Diane said Hamline and William Mitchell also offered her scholarships.
Not to diminish her success, but seeking diversity among the well-heeled to give the world another lawyer seems like a stretch.
She does not believe that being married to the influential Ed was a factor. “As a matter of fact my résumé never mentioned the fact that I was married,” she said. “I’m guessing yours probably wouldn’t have mentioned personal information.”
True, but I wouldn’t have accepted scholarship money, were I married to someone with Ed’s dough.
There was a long silence.
“I felt very fortunate I was striking out on a new career and someone was showing respect for my past experience,” she said. “We were also putting two daughters through college at the same time.”
Having passed the Minnesota bar exam in 2004, Diane plans to take the Massachusetts test next month. “If you have any connections and you know any one in the legal community, please put me in touch with them,” she said. “I need a job.”
Clicking with Nigel
Nigel Barker, a judge on “America’s Next Top Model,” is reportedly hot enough to heat up those normally immune to his charms.
The famous high-fashion photog took a break from snapping pictures Friday on Washington and 3rd Avenue N., to step into a new Dunn’s Bros.
“I asked him if he was Nigel Barker, and he said, yes,” said coffee shop staffer Holly Bowers. “He’s shooting for a health magazine. I said, ‘You know you’ve got to be hot when a lesbian has a crush on you.’ I went and got my picture taken with him, and he kissed me on the head.”
‘He Talk Like a … ‘ fool
“Did you see Halle Berry naked?” asked attorney Clinton Collins.
When Collins is with actor Joseph C. Phillips, it seems one of them is still in high school.
The impure question came out of the blue while we dined at Tacos Morelos, just hours after they had attended Park Avenue United Methodist Church. Collins had arranged at the church for Phillips to sign his book, “He Talk Like a White Boy.”
As always, Phillips responded with the detached maturity of a parent. “Not really. She was wearing boxer shorts and pasties,” said Phillips, of his love scene with Berry in the movie “Strictly Business.”
The next day at Antoine’s Creole Maison in the Uptown area, the audience got to see them get on each other’s nerves.
The Republican Phillips is on a different side of the debate about affirmative action and reparations from Collins.
When Collins, an attorney and columnist for the Rake, got up to make his case, he mentioned being Harvard-educated. Phillips joked to the crowd that he wondered how long it would take Collins to mention Harvard. Eventually, Phillips ordered his old friend, “Sit down, please.”
Phillips said that before Collins started talking, the two women in the back looked ready to buy books.
“I was out way before this point,” said Coldwell Banker Burnet Realtor Carmen McAfee to her table mate, Myra Bland, a nurse. Later, McAfee told me that she thinks Phillips has forgotten that “there are numerous people who have not reached” his level. “All kinds of discrimination happens on a daily basis. What do you do, just cut them loose? He was fortunate.”
C.J. is at 612.332.TIPS or cj@startribune.com. E-mailers, please state a subject — “Hello” doesn’t count. Attachments are not opened, so don’t even try. More of her attitude can be seen on FOX 9 Thursday mornings.
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