Who wants to miss the million-dollar question?

L.A. attorney Ken Basin last month earned a dubious distinction: He became the only person in the United States to make it to the million-dollar question on the show "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" and give the wrong answer.

Basin, an associate in the entertainment practice at the Century City office of Greenberg Glusker Fields Claman & Machtinger LLP, is no stranger to game shows. The 24-year-old whiz kid played "College Jeopardy!" and participates in a weekly trivia game at a Santa Monica bar.

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Basin originally tried out for "Millionaire" while on a trip to New York more than a year ago. He finally got his chance to go on the Aug. 23 show, which taped Aug. 5 in New York. To his surprise, Basin quickly made it all the way through the $500,000 round, using two of his "lifelines" in the process.

Then Basin made a fateful decision. When presented with the million-dollar question--what was President Lyndon Johnson's favorite soft drink when in the White House?--Basin decided to guess the answer instead of walking away with $500,000.

"I chose to answer the question because I figured that if I walked away, I would forever regret not trying to answer the question," he said.

But Basin's answer, "Yoo-hoo," was wrong. The correct answer was "Fresca." He left with only $25,000.

Soon after the show aired, Basin saw his name underneath a screaming New York Post headline, "Schmuck! Meet the Know-It-All Kid Who Blew $475,000!"

But the really tough part was keeping his promise to keep quiet about the outcome during the nearly three weeks between the taping and the air date.

"I didn't even tell my parents," he said. "But they were very wily. In our conversations, they were constantly asking me where I ate while I was in New York. I think they were trying to figure out whether I won by looking at how expensive the restaurants were."

Staff reporters Howard Fine and Daniel Miller contributed to this column. Page 3 is compiled by Editor Charles Crumpley. He can be reached at [e-mail].