Charlie Rose Face Plants To Save His MacBook Air

Yeah, you read that headline right. Apple couldn’t pay for better press than this.

Viewers of the Charlie Rose show tonight were stunned to see the normally composed Rose looking like he’d just been in a bar fight. He has a very bad black eye and a bandage over part of his forehead. I contacted the show’s producers to hear what happened. Earlier today, they said, Rose tripped in a pothole while walking on 59th Street in Manhattan. He was carrying a newly purchased MacBook Air and made a quick (but ultimately flawed) decision while falling: sacrifice the face, protect the computer. “In doing so, he pretty much hit the pavement face first, unfortunately,” they said.

Luckily the MacBook Air survived the fall. “The Macbook Air is fine, he showed us the blood stains on it this morning.”

Rose, one of the hardest working journalists I’ve met, records multiple shows per day and cancellations are rare. Falling directly onto his face apparently doesn’t qualify as a good enough excuse to postpone a show.

By the way, Rose says he always has to have the newest gadgets as soon as possible. After we recorded an interview two weeks ago (see it here) he invited me to dinner along with Matt Rutherford, the show’s head tech guy.

He had three different cell phones out at various times – here’s a picture with a Blackberry, an iPhone and a…what is that? A Samsung?