Photo: Getty
It was the most writerly proposal ever.
By Amy Lamare — Written on Oct 19, 2019
Ronan Farrow's Catch and Kill is thee media sensation of the week. Released on October 15th, the book about his investigation into the allegations against Harvey Weinstein that first broke two years ago and kicked off the #MeToo movement also dives into the corruption at NBC including how the network covered up Weinstein's crimes. The allegations against former Today host Matt Lauer are also explored in-depth in the book. It is a gripping page-turner. One of the people featured prominently in the book is Ronan Farrow's then-boyfriend and now fiancé, Jon Lovett.
Lovett is a man of many talents, which we will dive into in a moment. He was a speechwriter for President Obama and Hillary Clinton. He co-created the NBC sitcom 1600 Penn, he was a writer on the third season of HBO's The Newsroom. And as if all that wasn't enough, Lovett also is one of the founders of Crooked Media, which hosts podcats including Pod Save America and Lovett or Leave It. He also launched Vote Saves America, a voter recruitment and education project. He's one impressive guy. But then, he'd have to be to catch Ronan Farrow's attention and heart.
And wait until we tell you how Farrow proposed!
So ... who is Jon Lovett?
1. His background
Jonathan Ira Lovett was born on August 17, 1983, in Woodbury, Long Island. He comes from a Jewish family of Ukranian ancestry. His parents ran a box factory that his grandfather started. He attended Williams College and graduated with his bachelor's degree in mathematics in 2004. Rotating Linkages in a Normed Plane, his senior thesis, was published in American Mathematical Monthly. He was also the class speaker at his graduation ceremony. After graduation, he moved to New York City to try and launch a career as a stand-up comedian.
2. Political speechwriting
In 2004, while Lovett was trying to be a stand-up comedian, he volunteered for John Kerry's presidential campaign. His work on Kerry's campaign, specifically a statement for the candidate he was asked to write, led to an offer of a political writing internship. In 2005, he got a job assisting then-Senator Hillary Clinton's speechwriter Sarah Hurwitz. Lovett continued to write speeches for Clinton through her presidential campaign in 2008. Lovett then won a contest to write speeches for President Obama. He worked for Obama for three years.
3. Hollywood calling
In 2011, Lovett moved to Los Angeles to try his hands at becoming a screenwriter. Alongside Josh Gad and Jason Winer, he co-created 1600 Penn. He was a writer and producer with the show from 2012 to 2013. As we mentioned earlier, he then went on to work on season three of The Newsroom.
4. Crooked Media
Not long after the 2016 Presidential election, Lovett teamed up with fellow former Obama speechwriters Jon Favreau, Dan Pfeiffer and Tommy Vietor to found Crooked Media. The team then started the Pod Save America podcast. The election of Donald Trump inspired them to create a new company and podcast that reflected their progressive political values. Pod Saves America runs twice weekly on Mondays and Thursdays. It averages more than 1.5 million listeners per episode. Lovett also hosts the panel show podcast Lovett or Leave It, which is recorded in front of a live audience in Los Angeles.
5. Ronan and Jon
Jon Lovett met and started dating Ronan Farrow sometime in 2011 after he stopped working for President Obama. Their relationship is explored in Catch and Kill. Farrow won the Pulitzer Prize in 2018 for his New Yorker investigative work that uncovered the sexual abuse allegations against Harvey Weinstein.
6. The proposal
Lovett was reading and offering feedback on various drafts of Catch and Kill, which gave Farrow the idea to creatively propose to Lovett. In the book, he described his process. “Later, when I decided some of that reporting would make its way into a book, I’d send him a draft, and put in a question, right on this page: ‘Marriage?’” Farrow wrote. “On the moon or even here on Earth. He read the draft, found the proposal here, and said, ‘Sure.’”
7. On the moon?
According to Catch and Kill, Farrow and Lovett have a long-running joke about getting married on the moon. Apparently, Lovett's mom has made it clear to them that she "wanted grandchildren, and not in the age of lunar bases."
Amy Lamare is a Los Angeles based writer and editor covering entertainment, pop culture, beauty, fashion, fitness, technology, and the intersection of technology, business, and philanthropy. You can find her on Instagram and Facebook.