CNN talk show host Larry King's Tuesday interview with LDS Church President Gordon B. Hinckley won't be his first chat with the LDS prophet.
King of "Larry King Live" fame and his wife, part-time Provo resident Shawn Southwick, were at the Delta Center last April for Peter Lowe's Success 1998 seminar, featuring a roster of motivational speakers that included former President George Bush, author Zig Ziglar, Utah Jazzman Karl Malone and King."As a member of the church, she wanted (King) to meet the prophet," LDS Church spokesman Don LeFevre said Monday. During their meeting, King, who is Jewish, apparently expressed interest in having President Hinckley on his show.
"Ultimately, (President Hinckley) was invited," LeFevre said. President Hinckley will appear on the show at 7 p.m. Tuesday to discuss his life, the future of the LDS church and his views on the country's sense of morality, according to a network news release. The talk show takes questions from callers across the country.
Southwick, 38, married King a year ago last Saturday, just before the groom underwent an angioplasty at age 63. And while folks from around the nation tune into her husband's interviews of national newsmakers, Southwick, though a singer and actress, has kept a low profile in the local press.
King has been much less reticent about his wife, whom he publicly referred to as an "infomercial goddess" with a fondness for Gummi Bears.
Southwick has done info-mercials for the hair-thickening swatches she developed. And she has developed and will promote a line of skin-care products and cosmetics on the Home Shopping Network.
Still, her Utah roots are firm - her condominium is in the Provo-Orem area - as are those of her father, Karl Engemann, singer Marie Osmond's manager and a record company executive married to a studio singer.
Music, in fact, has marked much of Southwick's varied professional career. And in July, she signed a recording contract in Nashville.
Last May the couple bought a home in McLean, Va., outside Washington, D.C. In July, they also bought a $3 million home in Beverly Hills. King broadcasts from Washington, D.C., Los Angeles and New York. And Southwick has long worked in California as an entertainer and businesswoman.
If she's not always in the Utah press, she is well-known in the state. She had co-hosted two episodes of Eugene Jeleznik's "Utah Showtime" TV show in 1991. She also has been a backup singer for Osmond.
"She was very personable," said Jeleznik, a friend of Southwick's parents, who sang for him while they studied at Brigham Young University. "I was very impressed (with Southwick). If I wasn't impressed, I wouldn't have had her on my show."
Southwick, whose union to King marks her third and King's seventh marriage, has hosted USA cable's celebrity interview show, "Hollywood Insider," racking up a star-studded interview list including Sylvester Stallone.
She also has done some daytime soap opera work and guest-starred on shows from "It's Garry Shandling's Show" to "Who's the Boss?"
Southwick's son, Danny, is a junior varsity quarterback at Timp-view High School in Orem, where he lives with his father, Dan Southwick.
"They've raised Danny well," said football coach Chad Van Orden, who also helped coach the woman's brother, Bret Engemann, noted in 1995 for quarterbacking the Thunderbirds' greatest season in their 20-year history. Bret was to attend BYU after serving an LDS mission.
"They're a great family," said Van Orden, describing Shawn South-wick as a supportive mother who roots for her son at as many games as possible. "It's just how she gets to work her schedule out."
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Additional Information
`Live' tonight at 7
LDS Church President Gordon B. Hinckley will appear on "Larry King Live" tonight at 7 on CNN.