One of the perks of being a writer is scheduling interviews with cute, successful twentysomething men (not that I've ever actually dated a source, but a girl can have her dreams, right?). Yesterday I had a phone interview with a young up-and-coming singer/actor whose voice can only be described as McSexy (Mom, sorry you had to read that, but it's true). We emailed and he gave me the green light to call him for an interview. When I dialed the number in his email signature line, a friendly male voice answered with "Bonjour!"
I thought he was joking around in his mysterious, exotic actor persona, so I launched into my schpiel about who I was and why I'd asked to interview him. The guy muttered something in French and hung up. I referred back to my original email in which McSexy's friend had forwarded me his contact info and realized that the signature line had two digits reversed. So I tried him again, and we had a delightful discussion about his music and future projects. I need to send him a follow-up email with a thank you note and a few more questions, and part of me wants to delicately mention the mistake (after all, other people might not have a back-up number and he could miss out on opportunities). Another part of me wants to spare him the potential embarrassment and just write the darn article. Thoughts?