Pageant News Bureau - Lisa Gleave

A crusty old editor in a big city newsroom used to tell young reporters there was one sin he could not forgive. "Never report on how you failed to get a story!"

We're glad the poor old guy is not around to see this day. PNB had the story of a lifetime, and we let it slip through our fingers. And it wasn't a mistake by a reporter, it was a "bonehead play" by a senior editor.

When we heard that Australian model Lisa Gleave was about to audition on "The Price Is Right" (from Oct. 28 to Nov. 11, 2002), we sent Patrick Nathaniel Bartholomew for an exclusive interview. Bartholomew, always a pro, got what he considered the best interview of his career.

He called PNB headquarters to rave about Ms. Gleave. "She could become the hottest Australian in the history of Hollywood," he said, "bigger than Errol Flynn, Mel Gibson and Russell Crowe combined." We thought he had lost his senses. And besides, wasn't Errol Flynn from England?

But when we looked it up and found that Flynn really was from Australia -- and reminded ourselves that Bartholomew is never wrong -- we got pretty excited ourselves.

Before we sent our correspondent down, we knew that Ms. Gleave had been a swimsuit star on Australia's scenic Gold Coast. We knew that she had moved to Sydney in the late 1990s to get into the fashion scene. She had also worked as a model in Southeast Asia. We knew that she had taken up residence in the United States in 2000, and had recently finished as first runner-up to the Queen of Clubs in Bulgaria.

But beyond that, she was a mystery woman. Was it true that she had trained as a race car driver? That she was happily married? That she could do a dead-on American accent?

"All the answers are in there," said a jubilant Bartholomew after completing the interview. "I'm sending it by special PNB courier. There are no other copies." It was all top-secret, with no risk of electronic interception.

But something happened that was worse than electronic interception. A PNB senior editor received the encoded interview at headquarters -- and then lost it. An exhaustive search by PNB security failed to yield a trace of it.

An exclusive interview lost! It was devastating.

The PNB editor volunteered to forfeit all his stock options, but the offer was refused. We're all in this together, said his colleagues. Even Bartholomew himself called in to offer words of support. "Lisa won't mind," he said, "she's a great human being."

Well, at least we know she's nice. But when millions watch Lisa Gleave on "The Price Is Right," they won't have the benefit of PNB's extensive insights on this once-in-a-century beauty. What will posterity say?

Just in case, if you find the lost interview, please notify PNB or the International Pageant Historical Society. Once she becomes famous, a reward will be offered.

UPDATE: We've found it! To read the lost interview, click here.

What did Lisa say?