Cannes, France 
 
 At the Cannes Lions advertising festival in the south of France, Fire and Fury author Michael Wolff spoke onstage today with Jeff Goodby, the cofounder of Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, a San Francisco-based ad agency. Wolff testified to Donald Trump’s ability to sell books. (Wolff’s chronicle of Trump’s first nine months as president, which was released in January, remains at the top of Amazon’s bestseller list.) US vice president Mike Pence, he said, was another story. 
 
 “When Mike Pence becomes the president—which I believe that he will become—the media business goes into a deep depression,” said Wolff. “Mike Pence is literally the most boring man on earth.” 
 
 “He’s not even mentioned in your book!” observed Goodby. 
 
 “Faceless. He’s so faceless,” said Wolff. “Even in the White House they only talk about Pence’s wife. Mother, she is called.” 
 
 “He calls her mother?” said Goodby. 
 
 “Everyone in the White House calls her mother,” said Wolff. ||||| File this one under “not a surprise.” 
 
 Michael Wolff predicts a bleak future for Donald Trump — and the media. 
 
 The “Fire & Fury” author predicted before a packed house at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity on Monday morning that President Trump will be ousted from the White House in short order. 
 
 “We will soon find ourselves in the mother of all constitutional crises … When [Vice President] Mike Pence becomes president, which I believe that he will become, the media business goes into a deep depression,” Wolff said. “Mike Pence is literally the most boring person on Earth. He’s faceless.” 
 
 A nonchalant Wolff delivered the news, while basking in the success of his colorful, bestselling book that describes Trump’s dysfunctional White House. 
 
 The book has sold over 2 million hard copies in the US since its Jan. 5 release — plus millions of e-copies. 
 
 Wolff’s explosive book’s rise was meteoric. On Jan. 4, the day that The Guardian leaked excerpts from “Fire & Fury,” Wolff saw pre-sales of his book skyrocket to No. 1 on Amazon’s bestseller’s list within hours. Soon after, the White House sent a cease-and-desist letter, which boosted sales even higher. 
 
 Wolff has since cashed in on what he called the “aberrant entertainment” that is the Trump presidency, and will soon see his book turned into a 10-part television series directed by Jay Roach. He is also planning on penning a sequel, according to reports. 
 
 “Once a day, I cast my eyes heavenward and say, ‘Thank God for Donald Trump,’” the journalist said. 
 
 Despite the massive success, Wolff threw a few jabs at his competitors, who have questioned the accuracy of the gossipy tome. 
 
 “The press corps over there, the Washington political reporters, they do a different thing than I do,” he said with a touch of arrogance. “They are all very resentful that I got this story and I made all this money.” 
 
 What Wolff did was observe the administration at work for seven months. 
 
 “I never asked a question beyond, ‘How’s it going?,’” he said. “It’s an older style of reporting.” 
 
 To be sure, there were plenty of errors in the book — which sparked a lot of the pushback. 
 
 Wolff didn’t leave Cannes’ main stage before getting in a jab at the New York Times for its scoop that the president threatened to fire special counsel Robert Mueller, who is heading the investigation into the Trump campaign’s Russia ties. 
 
 “Every day he tried to fire Mueller. He did this constantly, to virtually everyone,” Wolff said smugly. “So the Times story was not wrong, but the Times story missed that fact.” ||||| The old-fashioned quality of Vice President Mike Pence’s relationship with wife Karen has made their marriage something of an obsession. 
 
 Pence said in 2002 that in the interest of "building a zone around (his) marriage," he never dines alone with a woman other than Karen and avoids attending events without her if alcohol is present. It’s unclear if this remains his practice, but the Pences’ distinctive relationship has taken on greater interest since the former Indiana governor became vice president. (His boss President Donald Trump has noted his wingman "has one hell of a good marriage going.") 
 
 Several days after the inaugural, Rolling Stone published a 6,500-word profile on Pence, which revealed a colorful detail about the vice president and the second lady. Citing an anonymous source, the magazine reported that Pence refers to wife Karen as "Mother." 
 
 The article described a scene from a dinner at the governor’s mansion where Pence was hosting Democratic state lawmakers. In the presence of his dinner guests, Pence was reportedly overheard shouting to Karen from one end of the table to the other: 
 
 "Mother, Mother, who prepared our meal this evening?" 
 
 The legislators looked at one another, speaking with their eyes: He just called his wife "Mother." 
 
 Maybe it was a joke, the legislator reasoned. But a few minutes later, Pence shouted again. 
 
 "Mother, Mother, whose china are we eating on?" 
 
 A couple of his dinner guests raised their eyebrows at the nickname, but Pence wouldn’t be the first man at the highest rungs of the executive branch to call his wife "Mother," or some variation of it, according to Carl Sferrazza Anthony, a historian of first ladies. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln called Mary "Mother" (or Molly), and Calvin Coolidge referred to wife Grace as "Mamma." More recently, Gerald Ford referred to Betty as "Mother" (after they had children) and Ronald Reagan called Nancy "Mommy." 
 
 We emailed the vice president’s office to ask if Pence refers to Karen as "Mother." His office initially declined to comment on the record, before an aide later emailed to say: "This is false." 
 
 We decided to break from our usual mission of analyzing the nitty gritty of public policy to look into this unusual feature of Pences' relationship that has captured readers' interest. We found several people willing to go on the record that Pence calls his wife "Mother," but we were unable to find video or other documentary evidence, so the claim will remain unrated. 
 
 ‘Mother, Mother’ 
 
 On the evening of March 12, 2013, seven Democratic lawmakers from the Indiana Legislature arrived at the governor’s mansion in Indianapolis for dinner with the Pences. Rep. Linda Lawson recalled being seated nearest to Pence. 
 
 The evening was intended to bridge the gulf between Pence, whose Republican party held a supermajority in the state Legislature, and the Democratic minority. But for Lawson — who confirmed she was the source of the Rolling Stone story — the dinner was memorable more for what it revealed about the Pences’ relationship than for any bipartisan bonhomie it may have stirred. 
 
 Here’s how Lawson recalled the evening to PolitiFact: 
 
 "We didn't have an awful lot to talk about because we haven't anything in common. I mean, his concerns about women's reproductive rights and LGBT issues weren't part of his priority list and they were part of ours. 
 
 "So there was a big lull in our conversation and he shouted down at the end of the table to his wife and said: ‘Mother! Mother! Could you tell us who's china we're eating on this evening?’ And she responded by saying, ‘Yes, this belonged to (former Indiana Gov. Mitch) Daniels’ family. It's very efficient and it's white and you can use it with everything, blah, blah, blah.’ 
 
 "So the conversation went on and we were oohing and aahing at how great that was. But then there was still nothing to talk about. So maybe 15 minutes later it was, ‘Mother! Mother! Who prepared our meal this evening?’ And she went on to explain it was a caterer in town and he was new and he was really good and blah blah blah." 
 
 "The leader of the Democrats was sitting next to me on my right side, and I looked at him and I said, ‘He called his wife f------ 'Mother'!’ " 
 
 A group photo of the Democratic guests on the evening when then-Indiana Gov. Mike Pence was overheard referring to wife Karen Pence as "Mother." Rep. Linda Lawson is second from left. (March 12, 2013. Courtesy of Ryan Dvorak) 
 
 We asked Lawson if men referring to their wives as "Mother" was a regional custom, or a commonplace term of endearment in her neck of the woods. 
 
 "I am going to be 70 years old in November. I was in the General Assembly for 20 years, and I was a police officer for 24 years before that, and I have never heard a man call his wife ‘Mother,’ " she said. "I just never have. So that's why I was so shocked." 
 
 Pence’s office referred us to Marc Lotter, who served as Pence’s press secretary until he resigned last fall. Lotter, who’s known and worked for Pence since the mid 1990s, said Lawson is "not a fan" of the vice president. 
 
 "I don't ever recall hearing that," he said. "About the closest you could come would be if the kids were in the room or something and it was, you know, 'Talk to your mom, talk to your mother,' those kinds of things like many parents do." 
 
 Lotter did not attend dinner at the governor’s mansion with the Democratic lawmakers. But he held out the possibility that Pence had been "making some kind of joke or something along those lines." 
 
 But according to a former Democratic lawmaker who sat next to the governor at one of the dinners, Pence himself seemed to indicate "Mother" was more of an enduring moniker rather than an isolated reference. 
 
 "I remember him saying that about Karen — referring to his lovely wife — saying, you know, 'I refer to her as ‘Mother.’ ‘Mother Pence,’ " said former Indiana Democratic State Sen. James Arnold. "It was just kind of comical. But then again all of us in politics need somebody to watch over us. We all need mothers, I'll tell ya." 
 
 Arnold’s former aide, Michelle Moody, said that while she couldn’t confirm the context of the conversation, "I do know that Pence referred to his wife as ‘mother’ several times during the dinner." (It’s unclear if Moody herself attended the dinner, or if she heard this secondhand.) 
 
 Separately, longtime Indiana politics reporter Jim Shella, who covered the Pences, recalled hearing the nickname in 2013 while at the governor’s residence to conduct an interview. 
 
 "Offhand, I'm going to say that I did hear him use that term on at least one occasion, but it's not a clear memory," said Shella, a political reporter with Indianapolis-based WISH-TV Channel 8. "It certainly fits with his general demeanor." 
 
 Democratic Rep. Scott Pelath said he remembers attending dinner at the governor’s mansion. He doesn’t recall hearing Pence call Karen "Mother," though he doesn’t dispute it either, in part because it aligns with the Pences’ quaint manner. 
 
 "When I was a child, I personally knew a lot of rural progenitors born in the 1800s, and perhaps that archaic manner of address skipped past my ears," Pelath said. "There were countless other things about the Pences that left a lasting impression. One, perhaps, is that they reminded me of rural progenitors born in the 1800s." ||||| Trump denies he gave author access and hits out at ‘Sloppy Steve’, as spokeswoman dismisses claims about his stability and fitness to serve 
 
 The US publisher of an explosive new book exposing chaos behind the scenes at the White House has brought publication forward to Friday in defiance of an attempt by Donald Trump’s lawyers to try to shut it down. 
 
 The book’s author, Michael Wolff, tweeted: “Here we go. You can buy it (and read it) tomorrow. Thank you, Mr President.” 
 
 Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House review – tell-all burns all Read more 
 
 Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House was due to be released on Tuesday. But after extracts were made public by the Guardian, the White House was thrown into a frenzy. 
 
 Claims in the book about Trump’s mental stability and fitness to serve were dismissed on Thursday as “disgraceful and laughable” by the White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders. 
 
 Trump tweeted that he had never granted Wolff access to the White House and had turned down his requests many times. Describing the book as “phony”, Trump said Fire and Fury was: “full of lies, misrepresentations and sources that don’t exist”. He said he had never spoken to Wolff: “Look at this guy’s past and watch what happens to him and Sloppy Steve!” 
 
 
 
 Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) I authorized Zero access to White House (actually turned him down many times) for author of phony book! I never spoke to him for book. Full of lies, misrepresentations and sources that don’t exist. Look at this guy’s past and watch what happens to him and Sloppy Steve! 
 
 The president’s Twitter outburst followed a remarkable personal statement denouncing Steve Bannon, his one-time confidant, whom he castigated as self-aggrandizing and not a critical figure. 
 
 
 
 “Steve Bannon has nothing to do with me or my presidency,” Trump said. “When he was fired, he not only lost his job, he lost his mind.” 
 
 Sanders said the president was “furious and disgusted” at Bannon’s attacks on his family, which included the claim that Donald Trump Jr’s Trump Tower meeting with a group of Russians who promised dirt on Hillary Clinton was “treasonous” and “unpatriotic”. 
 
 
 
 Play Video 1:18 Fire and Fury: Key explosive quotes from the new Trump book - video 
 
 Then on Thursday, as the White House struggled to contain the fallout from the book, a lawyer for the president sent a letter demanding Wolff and his publisher, Henry Holt & Co, “immediately cease and desist from any further publication, release or dissemination”, or excerpts and summaries of its contents. The legal notice, sent by the Beverly Hills-based attorney Charles Harder, also demanded a copy of the book. 
 
 Harder sent a similar letter to Bannon on Wednesday night, accusing the former chief strategist of violating an employee agreement and defaming the president. 
 
 At Mar-a-Lago, just before the new year, a heavily made-up Trump failed to recognize a succession of old friends Michael Wolff 
 
 The Guardian published details from the book on Wednesday after obtaining a copy from a bookseller in New England. New York magazine then rushed to publish a lengthy extract and more details began to emerge as major US publications including the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal received copies free from embargo. 
 
 About 250,000 copies of the book had already been shipped, supposedly to be held until Tuesday. On Thursday afternoon, a spokeswoman for Holt & Co told the Guardian publication in all formats was being brought forward to Friday “due to unprecedented demand”. 
 
 A statement from the publisher added: “Henry Holt confirms that we received a cease and desist letter from an attorney for President Trump. We see ‘Fire and Fury’ as an extraordinary contribution to our national discourse, and are proceeding with the publication of the book.” 
 
 
 
 Wolff is due on NBC’s Today show on Friday morning for his first on-the-record interview. 
 
 Ben Wizner, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s speech, privacy and technology project, said earlier Trump’s lawsuit had no chance of success. 
 
 “Even Donald’s Trump’s lawyers aren’t crazy enough to present this to a court,” he said. “It would be extraordinary and unprecedented for a court to respond to these claims by blocking publication. That is not going to happen. 
 
 “I think there is an audience of one for these legal threats and that’s Donald Trump.” 
 
 In a column for the Hollywood Reporter titled My Year Inside Trump’s Insane White House, Wolff gave more insight into what he discovered as he sat “day after day on a West Wing couch” for a year. Administration officials, he suggested, do not believe Trump is capable of fulfilling his role as president. 
 
 “Everybody was painfully aware of the increasing pace of his repetitions,” Wolff wrote. “It used to be inside of 30 minutes he’d repeat, word-for-word and expression-for-expression, the same three stories – now it was within 10 minutes. Indeed, many of his tweets were the product of his repetitions – he just couldn’t stop saying something.” 
 
 He added: “Hoping for the best, with their personal futures as well as the country’s future depending on it, my indelible impression of talking to them and observing them through much of the first year of his presidency, is that they all – 100% – came to believe he was incapable of functioning in his job.” 
 
 In a final anecdote, Wolff wrote: “At Mar-a-Lago, just before the new year, a heavily made-up Trump failed to recognize a succession of old friends.” 
 
 Much of Thursday’s White House press briefing centered on the book. Sanders said any claims about Trump’s stability were “disgraceful and laughable”. 
 
 “If he was unfit, he probably wouldn’t be sitting there,” she said. 
 
 Trump appeared before the media earlier in the Roosevelt Room, where he was meeting Republican senators about immigration. There were shouted questions from reporters, including: “Did Steve Bannon betray you, Mr President? Any words about Steve Bannon?” 
 
 Trump replied: “I don’t know, he called me a great man last night, so, you know, he obviously changed his tune pretty quick.” 
 
 Facebook Twitter Pinterest Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, pictured with Eric Trump, are central figures in Wolff’s book. Photograph: Justin Lane/EPA 
 
 Wolff’s book – “filled with false and misleading accounts”, according to the White House – soared from 48,449th on Amazon’s bestselling books list to No 1. 
 
 'Bannon may already be cooperating with Mueller': tell-all book shifts frame of Russia inquiry Read more 
 
 The author said his book was based on more than 200 interviews, including multiple conversations with the president and senior staff. Sanders claimed Wolff “never actually sat down with the president” and had spoken with him just once, briefly, after Trump took office. She dismissed the book as “trashy tabloid fiction”. 
 
 “Aides thought they had more time to prepare for the book’s formal release,” the Washington Post reported. “Trump spent much of the day raging about the book to top aides, officials and advisers said … As he fumed, some aides were still frantically searching for a copy of the book.” 
 
 On Wednesday, Bannon hosted Breitbart News Tonight on Sirius XM radio as usual, making little reference to the public rupture. 
 
 When a caller brought up the issue, Bannon replied: “The president of the United States is a great man. You know I support him day in and day out.”
– Fire and Fury author Michael Wolff had some amusing tidbits to share about the VP during an appearance at the Cannes Lions advertising festival Monday, Quartz reports. While President Trump sells books—Fire and Fury, which details his first nine months as POTUS, is still a bestseller after being released in January—Mike Pence, not so much. "When Mike Pence becomes the president—which I believe that he will become—the media business goes into a deep depression," Wolff predicted. "Mike Pence is literally the most boring man on earth." Wolff predicts Pence will get a job promotion due to Trump being booted from office, the New York Post reports. Wolff went on to say that Pence is "faceless" even at work: "Even in the White House they only talk about Pence’s wife. Mother, she is called." Jeff Goodby, the ad agency cofounder onstage with Wolff, asked whether Pence really calls his wife "Mother." Wolff's response: "Everyone in the White House calls her Mother." Rolling Stone first reported back in 2017 that Pence refers to wife Karen as "Mother." Politifact has since spoken to a number of people who say they've witnessed him calling her that, but since the site couldn't find "video or other documentary evidence," it has not rated the claim as true.