Jenna Bush Phones Home

ABC News’ Ann Compton Reports: As if she hadn’t been in trouble enough with her parents over the years, 25-year-old Jenna Bush pushed the envelope again — reluctantly — on national television.

The President’s daughter was taping an appearance on the Ellen Degeneres show, promoting her children’s book,  when the mischevious host challenged Jenna to pick up the phone and prove she can dial straight through to her father anytime she wants.

"They are going to kill me. I’ll be in so much trouble," Jenna moaned while tapping the private number into a phone which Ellen brought out from under her chair. "You’re not recording the number or anything?" Jenna asked.

No, but the phone was patched into the studio’s audio system and Laura Bush can be heard and the President, too, when he is handed the phone.

"Are you mad?" Jenna asked her father.

"No, not at all," he answered with a chuckle.

Jenna said she feared that after such a stunt she wouldn’t get anything for Christmas.

And how could she reach her folks so easily?

Mrs. Bush staff tells ABC News it was the one evening at the White House with no holiday receptions, and President and Mrs. Bush just happened to be sitting in the residence at 8pm as the show was being taped at 5pm in Los Angeles.

Miss Bush, who recently got engaged to her long-time boyfriend, Henry Hager, may want to make amends with her parents if she hopes for a White House wedding.

Asked about that possibility in an exclusive interview with ‘World News’ anchor Charlie Gibson, First Lady Laura Bush replied, "We haven’t decided."

Read the full transcript of Gibson’s interview with the President and First Lady by clicking here.

President Bush went on to give a rare glimpse of his personal and family life, adding, "It was behind, Aspen, the presidential cottage (at Camp David) Uh, Henry came, uh, earlier in the day and said I’d like to see you."

"I knew," Bush continued after some prompting from Gibson, "because I’d asked Jenna earlier that if Henry ever asks you to marry him, would you say yes. She said absolutely, I love him."

Asked whether he made the young suitor sweat, the President admitted with a laugh, "Well, yeah, a slight bit, not a lot."

Read all the latest in the world of politics and the race for 2008 every day in The Note.