Thanks for your review, for those of us who didn't get to see the whole show. I did catch a clip of the intro, and she seemed to handle the jabs very well.
The question about "personal space" was astute. People in the large eastern cities (and the left coast cities) tend to stand closer when speaking, than do people from the western states. Such cultural differences should be common knowledge to anyone who studied communications, and I suspect Curry's efforts were deliberately geared toward intimidation.
I think Curry was simply trying to draw Sarah into the group shot.
I don’t think standing close or far away from people has anything to do with “left” or “right.” City people are used to standing close to each other because of the lack of space. It makes sense that Sarah is used to having room around her - being from a small town in Alaska. Again, I thought she was absolutely charming.
I also have a theory that people who come from small countries and/or islands, tend to speak softly (Ireland, England, Japan) and people who live in large countries, speak much more loudly (Americans, Russians and, perhaps the worst of all, the Chinese).