- Known for her underhanded tactics of booking guests. She started a booking war with The Arsenio Hall Show (1989) by threatening guests to cancel their dates on Arsenio or they would never be on The Tonight Show again. Ken Kragen was the first to come out in public and say he was threatened by Kushnick. When he refused to break a date with Arsenio, Kushnick began cancelling artists he represented.
- After she was fired by NBC, she was barred from being admitted onto the NBC lot.
- Is portrayed by Kathy Bates in The Late Shift (1996)
- Refused to be interviewed by NBC news anchor Tom Brokaw unless the network canceled coverage of the 1992 Republican Convention. When the Convention went overlong with Ronald Reagan's speech, she cancelled the live show, forcing NBC to run a previously aired, taped show.
- Her son Samuel died of AIDS due to a bad blood transfusion. She became an AIDS advocate soon afterward, testifying before Congress about changing blood supply rules.
- The couple had twins, Samuel Jared and Sara Rose, on August 19, 1980. Samuel became infected with the virus that causes AIDS during a blood transfusion and died at age 3 in 1983. Ms. Kushnick became a campaigner in the fight against the disease.
- Her husband Jerrold died of cancer in 1989.
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