Election Watch 2008

Heard On The Hill

Real-World Lobbying

By Emily Heil and Elizabeth Brotherton
Roll Call Staff

October 3, 2008

To the great stars of reality TV - think catfighting roomies, weeping bachelorettes and scheming would-be survivors - add lobbyists. The Lifetime TV show now filming in Washington, "Blonde Charity Mafia," features some scenes shot in the office of Georgetown lobby shop Pyle & Associates, HOH has learned.

Sophie Pyle, 21-year-old daughter of lobbyist Nick Pyle and granddaughter of firm founder Robert Pyle, is one of the show's stars, and she tells us her father will appear on the show, too. "He was skeptical at first, but now he thinks it's cool," she says. "He's even bragging to his friends about it."

Nick Pyle says the show's crew shot two days worth of footage in his offices during the lull following the GOP convention this summer. And he hinted that the scenes might include some serious family drama between himself and his daughter, who was a vice president in the family business but who now works in a Georgetown shoe boutique. "There's the firing scene, the you're-in-late scene, and the make-up scene," he divulges.

But he predicts that Sophie, a former intern in the office of former Rep. Charlie Bass (R-N.H.) who is taking time off from her undergraduate studies at the University of North Carolina, could have a future in the family biz - if Hollywood doesn't come calling first. "She's got great potential as a lobbyist," he tells us.

We'll just have to wait for details of the father-daughter dust-up until the show, which is being billed as "The Hills" set in Washington, debuts sometime early next year.

And clients of Pyle & Associates, fear not, your laundry (dirty or not) won't be aired on the show: Nick Pyle says there aren't any references to his clients in the show. He was paid a "location fee" for letting the crew take over his offices, which - in typical Washington fashion - "was eaten up by attorney's fees."

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