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Alert! Alert! This is a Twitter thread you HAVE TO READ--and it has nothing to do with politicsπππ
Everyone has a "worst boss" story. Unless you're extremely lucky, we all end up working for someone weird, dumb, mean or even criminal eventually. It's like a rite of passage! Likewise, we all have that one huge eff up at work, that one tiny decision where if we'd just done, like, literally anything else but what we did, we would've come out of the situation unscathed.
But this right here? This is all of that taken to the next level.
Meet Quinn Cummings. Oscar-nominated child actress, writer of three books, and--most importantly for our purposes--former Hollywood agent's assistant. And it is that latter credential that inspired a hilarious Twitter thread that is blowing up the internet.
Many moons ago, Cummings worked for a woman named Susan Smith, who was agent to actors like Kathy Bates and Brian Dennehy. Smith, Cummings said on Twitter, was known for three things: her great "taste in clients," adept negotiation, and, perhaps most importantly:
But, like, REALLY insane:
But volatile as she was, her clients were everything to her, and her care shone through in their sparkling careers. Which is why when Brian Dennehy expressed a long-held dream to perform in Death of a Salesman on the Chicago stage, Susan not only made it happen, but helped make her client a Tony winner in 1999 when the Chicago production moved to Broadway. Smith, as Quinn tells it, was "ecstatic." And Cummings and her coworkers were relieved.
Finally the pressure around the office would decrease! Except...
What ensued at the office was precisely what you'd think: a nightmare. But there was one ray of light: Dennehy himself was going to take out a full-page ad in Variety and The Hollywood Reporter to publicly thank Smith. The only thing Dennehy needed was a photo of Smith to use in the ad. Easy!
Except Smith hated having her photo taken, so there was nothing to choose from. Smith's new assistant, whom Cummings calls "Chet," turned to Quinn, who'd since been promoted, in hopes that she'd know of a good one to use.
The two snuck the photo out of Smith's office, sent it to Dennehy, and the ad appeared as planned. That morning, Quinn and her coworkers waited for Susan to show up to the office, elated and moved and grateful. For once she'd be happy, maybe even cheerful!
Except... well, I'll just let Quinn tell you:
When I read this on Twitter last night, I audibly gasped. And perhaps unsurprisingly, the rest of Twitter had a similarly enthusiastic reaction:
The thread even reached those who used to know Susan, who were just as thrilled as us Average Joes:
Even Brian Dennehy's own daughters chimed in!
Awwwwww...
So did Quinn make it through her well intended antics unscathed? Well...
Just goes to show, at work as in life, no good deed goes unpunished!