,

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It's Only Money

He never really wanted to be a millionaire anyway, right?

Winfrey got her start on TM" Brian
said. "I think the 50-50 guess I took
wasn't reckless, it was thought out."
It could be that Brian just likes to
be on TV game shows. He did pretty
well on Millionaire
several times
better than in 1987 when, at age 14,
he won $5,000 in the Jeopardy! Teen
Tournament. Still, that's nowhere close
to a million dollars.
"For years after I was on Jeopardy!, I
had people coming up to me mistak-
enly questioning ,my strategy in the
Final Jeopardy! round," he said.
The weekend before he taped the

DAVID SACHS
Editorial Assistant

T

he question remains: Did
Brian Kalt ever want to be a
,
millionaire?
He certainly has the
smarts. He was a 4.0 graduate of
Southfield-Lathrup High School in
1990, and a 3.9 honors history graduate
of the University of Michigan four years
later. (He got an A-minus in Spanish.)
He graduated from Yale Law School in
1997, and clerked a year for a federal
appellate judge in Louisville, Ky.
But if he really
wanted to be a mil-
lionaire, why is Brian
Kalt giving up his
big-time position as
an appellate attorney
in Washington, D.C.,
for a lesser-paying job
teaching torts and
administrative law at
Detroit College of
Law at Michigan
State University in
East Lansing?
DCL/MSU is the
alma mater of his
father, Melvyn Kalt of
West Bloomfield, an
appeals judge with
the Social Security
Administration in
Brian Kalt in the "Millionaire" show's hot seat on Thursday
Oak Park.
night, seated opposite host Regis Philbin.
According to
Brian's mother, Paula
Kalt: "Teaching is
A 14 year old Brian Kalt with host .Alex Trebek on the set of
what he always
'
want-
the game show Jeopardy!
ed to do."
But that's not the
Millionaire show, ex-Wolverine Brian,
final answer. If Brian, 27, didn't want to
sporting a newly grown professorial-
be a millionaire, why did he go on Regis
Philbin's ABC-TV game show, Who
style beard and accompanied by his
Wants to Be a Millionaire and then, after
wife of one year, Sara, swooped into
Spartan territory where they picked
winning probably more money than the
out their first house. The network
average person earns in a year, lose half
then flew them to New York for the
of it attempting to double it on the way
taping and back home to Washington
to a chance at winning one million dol-
lars?
after the show. The program aired
Thursday, March 9, locally on
"I know I'm going to be besieged by
people who think I should have just
Channel 7 (WXYZ). Details are post-
ed on the network's Web site,
taken the money and run, rather than
wwvv.abc.com
attempt to answer in what city Oprah
Now that the whirlwind is over,
David Sachs can be reached at (248)
Brian and Sara, a program director for
354-6060, ext. 262, or by e-mail at
Hillel at American University in
dsachs@thezvishnews.com
Washington, are preparing to move to

—

Michigan with a little more cash to
whip their new home into shape.
Was winning money a thrill, or was
not winning the million a letdown?
Paula Kalt said she told her son,
"just go and have a good time.
Whatever happens, happens."'
But for his father, the experience
was quite nerve-wracking. Melvyn
Kalt was one of his son's five "life-
lines," instructed to wait at home by
the phone during the three-hour
taping of the program, not knowing
what was happening in New York.
This was all on the chance that

-

3/10

2000

48

Visit our website at:
www.jnsourcebook.com

Brian would call him for help in
answering, perhaps, a million-dollar
question.
"It was more intense than waiting
for Brian to be born," Melvyn said.
"At least then I could see how he
was doing. My biggest fear would be
disappointing him."
Final question, Brian: What's
tougher for an attorney, being grilled
during oral argument by a U.S.
Supreme Court justice or trying to
provide the right answer to quiz mas-
ter Regis Philbin in front of millions
of onlookers?
"I wouldn't want to play poker with
Regis," answered Brian. ❑

