Ellen Gray: Ted Haggard's 'Trials' aired as documentary

THE TRIALS OF TED HAGGARD. 8 tonight, HBO.

YOU DON'T need HBO to follow "The Trials of Ted Haggard."

The disgraced former evangelical preacher, subject of Alexandra Pelosi's latest offbeat film for the premium-cable network, was on "Oprah" Tuesday and scheduled to be on ABC's "World News with Charles Gibson" and "Nightline" last night and on "Good Morning America" this morning.

After Pelosi's film airs, you should be able to catch Haggard and his family on CNN at 9, talking to Larry King.

That might seem like an awful lot of attention to be paying to a guy who used to get paid to talk about God - until November 2006, when he and the church he founded came to a parting of the ways in a scandal involving a male prostitute and crystal meth.

But the way Pelosi sees it, "people don't really understand that Ted had an agreement with the church that he would not tell his story, and he was recently released from that."

You might call this, then, Haggard's coming-out party. I'm guessing Haggard himself wouldn't.

Meeting with TV critics in Universal City, Calif., earlier this month, the former preacher seemed to be at pains to avoid condemning anyone else's behavior while insisting that "I'm in a place where . . . I am thoroughly and completely satisfied with my relationship with my wife."

When I tell you that his wife, Gayle, was seated beside him at the time and that as far as I know, he left that press conference with all his parts intact, you will know she's a woman of remarkable restraint.

More, perhaps, than Pelosi, who shuns the detachment of many documentary filmmakers, lending a seemingly sympathetic ear to her subjects while peppering them with questions.

According to Haggard, she and her husband, Michiel Vos, even hauled boxes to help with at least one of the moves he and his family made during the period when his severance agreement with the New Life church prohibited them from living in their Colorado Springs, Colo., home.

The filmmaker daughter of U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi first met Haggard while working on another film for HBO, "Friends of God: A Road Trip with Alexandra Pelosi," and re-entered his life to find a man whose struggles, at least on the surface, look like those of many today. Forced to find a job, he goes on interviews, heads back to school, sells insurance.

After his first job interview, he likens himself to "Seinfeld's" George Costanza, who always thought such meetings went well even when they were disasters.

"I have no way to measure this," he says. Then, more confidently, "If they don't Google me, I'll get the job . . . If you Googled me, you'd think I was Adolf Hitler or Idi Amin."

"Or worse, gay," suggests an off-camera Pelosi slyly.

"That's worse in some circles," he agrees, laughing. "In some circles, they'd rather have me be a murderer than be gay. So, yeah."

She juxtaposes that interview with footage from a 1997 sermon where he talks about helping a church member he'd seen coming out of a gay bar heal his marriage.

"He really got a powerful deliverance," he tells the crowd.

Haggard, too, got what some might consider a powerful deliverance: a year's severance pay in return for agreeing to undergo "spiritual restoration."

It's not an entirely soft landing, though.

The evangelist, whose easily caricatured grin carries him from riches to residential motel, seems genuinely frustrated at times, particularly when reporters get hold of his idea to move into a halfway house to counsel offenders, a project for which he's been soliciting financial support from friends.

He's bitter toward the church that "chose not to forgive me, but to exile me," and he's worried about the future.

"I really don't want my family to be poor."

If you've never seen an episode of "The Office" before, has NBC got a deal for you.

On Sunday after the Super Bowl - generally the most-watched TV event of the year - the network's airing a super-sized episode of "The Office" (approximately 10:30 p.m., Channel 10) that requires absolutely no previous knowledge of the show to enjoy.

There are celebrity guest stars - Jack Black and Cloris Leachman particularly make an, er, indelible impression - and there are turns in the spotlight for just about every member of "The Office" cast.

There's more than one laugh-out-loud moment.

But if, after the first few genuinely funny minutes, longtime fans of the show choose to wander off, I'd understand.

Because this "Office" party feels a little forced, more like a real-estate open house than the usual Thursday night hangout.

Here's hoping the people who buy will keep the place up. *

Send e-mail to graye@phillynews.com.