 Eddie receives a telegram from astronaut, Colonel Leroy Gordon Cooper. Cooper is responding positively to an invitation from Eddie to come to the Corbett household to have a quiet lunch, away from the media spotlight. Tom is a little skeptical that the telegram is really from Cooper - he thinks one of Eddie s friends is playing a joke. But it ends up really being from Cooper. Tom, despite being in the media business, does not want to capitalize on Eddie s quiet lunch, and thus decides not to do a story on it for the magazine. However, one of Eddie s classmates, Sammy Weston, has a father in television and he wants to film the lunch. Tom lets Eddie make up his own mind, and Eddie says no. Weston counter offers with the filmed luncheon being shown as a segment on a network show with an appearance fee paid to Eddie of $1,000. Eddie still says no. Weston yet counter offers with a $2,000 donation to Eddie s favorite charity. This time, Tom, offended by the offer, says no on behalf of Eddie. The story of the $2,000 gets back to Eddie and his schoolmates via Sammy, who thinks Tom and Eddie are being mean and selfish, not only for not allowing the camera crews and Eddie s friends to attend the lunch, but for denying a charity, $2,000. Tom and Mrs. Livingston explain to Eddie that the money was just a buy off in the name of altruism. Eddie and Cooper end up having their nice, quiet lunch, just the way both of them wanted and intended.