Dispatches: Are You There, NBC? It's Me, Zlata

Are You There, NBC? It's Me, Zlata

There are 23 minutes remaining before her Today show appearance, and Zlata Filipovic, the 13-year-old chronicler of war-torn Sarajevo, is snacking on cantaloupe, perusing a Harper's Bazaar and affecting an impressive calm. Impressive because she is surrounded by more chain-smoking attendants than even the Texan rock-star aspirant seated across the green room. While there is no faux blond manager in black crochet at the young Bosnian girl's disposal, her entourage is a solicitous group that includes her lawyer father and chemist mother, their Serbo-Croatian translator, a publicist and a representative from Zlata's French publisher, whose apparent purpose is to help make...

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