Send in the clowns

George and Eringer's next two reports to Feld relayed intimate details of Pottker's dogged attempt to track down and interview hard-to-find former circus employees, per Mirabella's instructions. She'd given their names to Eringer. She then turned in a new draft, but months passed without word from the magazine. George reported to Feld that "other matters discussed" with Pottker "were purely operational, based on book projects with which we plan to divert Pottker's attention."

The next memo to Feld was nearly gleeful: Mirabella had rejected Pottker's article on the circus. She had "no quotes from Kenneth Feld" or "children working at Ringling Bros." But Pottker wouldn't give up. She planned to try to sell the article to Redbook or Hard Copy, George warned.

Months later, however, there was no word from Redbook. She confided to Eringer that her new literary agent at William Morris had tired of trying to help her place a magazine piece, in which there was little profit, and "won't be of much further help to her on this front."

"Pottker is thinking up other ways to publish her circus story and asked my advice and guidance," said the next, unsigned memo, presumably from Eringer. "I told her I would think about it."

But there was a tone of alarm to Memo No. 9: Ohio Sen. Howard Metzenbaum, "incited by Pottker, has decided to pursue the 'circus problem' and may include her findings in hearings on child labor ... later this year," George reported. In addition, "Larry King Live had phoned Pottker again about booking her ... with Metzenbaum."

But meanwhile, she couldn't catch a break with a magazine. Redbook had rejected her child labor piece, George reported, with the excuse that it wasn't "broad enough." [She's] going to try USA Today's "Money" section next, he said. "Pottker continues her contact with Howard Metzenbaum's office," he added. She had also confided that Christopher Dodd, the Democratic senator from Connecticut, was interested in the issue, as well as "Larry King Live," he said. But "Pottker's in a race against time," he concluded, because the circus season ended in November.

Next, George reported that USA Today had rejected her piece as "too investigative." "She feels the story slipping away," he wrote.

Pottker confided to Eringer that she was thinking of calling a friend who knew a producer at ABC News -- apparently forgetting, or underestimating the importance of, the fact that the network was owned by Disney, a partner of Ken Feld's in "Disney's Shows on Ice." A report went to Feld.

Meanwhile, the plan to redirect her energies was starting to work. "Pottker has refocused time and energy into projects I have given her," Eringer reported. "Her enthusiasm for exposing Ringling Bros has been redirected to exposing others." Meanwhile, Eringer offered her a shoulder to cry on. He listened sympathetically when she castigated herself for clinging to an exposé of the circus.

"Pottker and I have discussed other authors and how tragic it is when they become obsessed by their stories and cannot move on," he reported in Memo No. 11. "We agreed that there are more good stories in the world and that if one doesn't work, an author should let it go and tackle other stories."

In fact, although Pottker hadn't quite thrown in the towel on Feld yet, Eringer managed to interest her in another project -- an investigative book on the Mars candy family. He reported that she had written a letter to People magazine about doing a piece on the plight of circus children, but after two weeks, there had been no word back from the magazine. "It is our judgment that People magazine will not show any interest," George reported confidently to Feld.

Now they had to make sure that someone showed interest in the Mars book.

Next Page: Paying Pottker to throw her off the trail

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