Just Between Us Girls

When I invited her to my home, Suzen Johnson did not come alone. She came with what turned out to be a "minder," Candace Trunzo, a news editor from Globe, the tabloid that had published stills of a videotape that showed Frank Gifford, cavorting with Johnson, 47. It was Trunzo's mission to make sure Suzen did not say the wrong thing.

Sometime earlier this year, a "friend" of Suzen's told Globe about the relationship between Suzen and Frank. Globe approached Suzen, told her it had the story and asked for her cooperation. At first she resisted, but then, as she told me, because "everybody was going to do something," decided to work with the tabloid. It's been reported that Globe paid Suzen at least $75,000 for her story.

Suzen called Frank to say she was coming to New York in April. They talked of meeting. Suzen checked into suite 521 of the Regency Hotel in Manhattan and stayed there for a week. Once she arrived, she called Gifford and told him where she was. Gif-ford's office is just around the corner from the Regency. The Globe representative told me the tabloid had picked up the hotel bill.

On April 30 and May 1 Frank Gifford and Suzen Johnson were videotaped kissing, eating strawberries, drinking wine, engaging in oral sex and having intercourse in the hotel suite. Gifford did not use a condom.

Globe says it was forced to print stills from the video it had obtained because the Giffords initially denied its story and threatened to sue.

So who made the video? Had anyone entrapped Frank Gifford? It was with these questions in mind that I sat down with Suzen and Candace. My determination to get answers was equaled only by the determination of those two ladies not to answer.

It was about three quarters of the way through the interview that I asked her point-blank, "Did you know there were cameras in the room?" Suzen shook her head from side to side, clearly indicating "no," while she said, "I--"

At this point Trunzo said, "She can't answer that. She can't discuss any of her feelings for Globe, and she can't discuss anything about the cameras or anything like that."

I had my answer, by gesture if not by word. The shake of Suzen's head from side to side meant Johnson did not know she was being videotaped.

I tried again. "Ok, so how did you feel when you were being taped?"

Suzen: I can't even answer that because my answer will say whether or not I knew.

Trunzo: You know there are aspects of this in terms of Globe's involvement, the cameras and all that, that we just can't discuss.

I waited half an hour before I tried asking again.

Playboy: When she went into the hotel were the cameras there?

Trunzo: I think we are getting into something I can't speak about.

Suzen: I never saw any cameras.

Trunzo: Don't put yourself in that position. You don't want to be in that position.

Playboy [to Trunzo]: Ok, let's have some fun with this. You pose a question that Suzen can answer. Ask the pertinent question, the seminal question. Ask a negative question that she can answer in a positive way.

Trunzo: Did you set Frank Giffbrd up to have sex with you at the Regency Hotel?

Suzen: Absolutely not. Why would I do that to anybody? I wouldn't want anybody to do it to me. What would be the point?

Trunzo [to Suzen]: You have to answer that question by saying that you had no expectations whether or not he was coming to see you in the hotel or that he was going to be anywhere else for that matter. [To Playboy] He is the one who suggested that he come up to the hotel, and he is the one who put the moves on her.

Suzen: Let me ask you this. Would you have done something, knowing that some sort of camera was watching you? Could anybody--either of you--be with somebody?

Trunzo: Well, it all depends on the circumstances.

Suzen: I don't know what sort of circumstance, unless I was an actress in a movie or something.

One thing is certain. In tabloid heaven there is much to hide. Said Suzen when I asked her what she will do when asked these questions by others in the media, "Well, I hope I will have a lot of coaching from attorneys and Candace, because I don't want to say the wrong things."

So, what happened, who knew, when did they know? There are several rumors circulating. One has it that private investigators videotaped the encounter. (But for whom?) The tape found its way to Globe and Globe persuaded Suzen to come onboard after the fact.

But here's what I think: Globe editors discovered the Gifford-Johnson telephone relationship and got Suzen to agree to let them write about it.

Globe told her that it would need some proof of the relationship. It would be too easy for Gifford to deny. They suggested that the meeting both Frank and Suzen had wanted for so long be arranged. It was. Next, Globe might have said it would arrange some evidence that the meeting had indeed taken place, but that Suzen shouldn't worry about that part of things. A photograph of his entering her hotel room taken from the corridor outside, another of his leaving? Something like that, she might have thought.

Was Frank entrapped? Well, he went to the room of his own free will. He seems to have initiated the love-making. But would the meeting have taken place without the tabloid? What would you do, gentle reader, if you were Frank, after all those years of pent-up telephone sex, and you'd just seen the Suzen Johnson cover? Once he had crossed the threshold of suite 521, he went for the touchdown.