What's Rona Barrett up to?

I'm making Colortinis in heaven in case you wondered

She moved to the DC Universe and time-traveled back to 1974.

Tom, while you're there, ask Milton Berle and Forrest Tucker to show you what you talked about on your show years ago (does this need explaining on Datalounge?). And I was already a fan of your show!

That’s Lola Barnett, silly R2.

She changed her name when she switched universes.

She's trying to avoid the Monitor!

How did Rona get her hair like that?

This is what she's been ding, building an affordable retirement community.

Here's Rona and Sir Clement Freud (Sigmund Freud's grandson) getting into it on Jack Paar's show when Rona comes on, tells a scandalous tale about tennis star Bobby Riggs, makes another point about Richard Burton's drinking, and Sir Freud calls her out on it and they go at it. Rona is even bleeped at one point. It makes for classic viewing -- someone really telling a gossip columist that he thinks her life's work is horrendous.

Ding.

Dong.

R6 Backcombing and tons of hairspray?

She was equally fatal.

Rona Barrett felt there was NO difference between what she did and what Barbara Walters does

as Rona said she deals with FACTS in her celebrity reporting. and not gossip

Yet it was Barbara who got the multi-million dollar deal to do 4 Prime Time celebrity specials and not Rona. This despite Rona being at ABC for five years prior

Pissed Rona off and she bolted to NBC, where she barely lasted a year.

In Rona's defense, at least she wasn't publicly squired by Roy Cohn like Babs Walters was.

Barbara was better connected and presented herself more intelligently, and so she won. It's not Barbara's fault Rona wasn't more intelligent about self-marketing.

Rona Barrett had her own magazine back then. So she was relatively smart in marketing herself. Long before Oprah stuck her mug on every month's zine.

Here's an article on her from a few years back. It's pretty interesting.

One thing I've always thought was interesting about her was she was huge in multiple metro markets across the country, but she never reached the entire country. She was broadcasting at best in only 40% of the markets. So half the country knew her, but the other half didn't.

I grew up in a smaller metropolitan market in the Midwest and she just wasn't on the news where i grew up, so I only knew who she was because she was so regularly parodied in DC Comics (both as "Lola Barnett" and as "Rova Barkett," a poodle gossip columnist in "Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew"). And she pretty much disappeared nationally by the mid-80s.

not that this matters a bit................but she was one of the reporters outside the front gate of Sharon Tates house in Aug of 1969 the morning after the murders. That has to be something you dont forget.

What I found entertaining about her was how she would very seriously, in grave tones, report news like Suzanne Somers being fired from Three's Company. "As dawn broke on ABC Studios' Metromedia Square in Hollywood, set designers were hard at work on a tiny new set, secluded and hidden away from the main Three's Company set, where Suzanne Somers will tape contractually obligated minute long appearances in the next several episodes. Somers is said to be distraught, and is at this very moment receiving counseling from her priest as well as her longtime manager and husband Alan Hamill."

I recall Tom Cruise was supposedly angry that Rona grilled him about having wanted to be a priest. A bit too close for gay comfort, I guess. I liked her. Tom Snyder HATED when he was made to split The Tomorrow Show with her.

All I remember is her autobiography begins, "Let me put it in just one inch, please"--supposedly said pleadingly by a major Hollywood star.

Which star? RIn Tin Tin?

[quote]So half the country knew her, but the other half didn't.

Not true at all. She was a correspondent on both Good Morning America and Entertainment Tonight, both of which were seen nationwide.

She was on Match Game often, and they let us know her job even if she wasn't syndicated there.

Shows like Carol Burnett were constantly doing parodies of her. Johnny Carson referred to Rona a lot.

It was impossible not to know who Rona Barrett was in the Seventies no matter where you lived. You knew her distinctive voice, hairstyle, and many other details.

In the 70's anyone with a head knew Rona Barrett. There were only 3 networks so it was hard to miss her. There was no "Entertainment Tonight" yet, or E! She had a magazine at every check out line.

Applause for her senior community.

R22, damn that's some good looking stars.

I remember her being on a talk show when the Jim Nabors/Rock Hudson marriage rumor was going on and she said there was no truth in it, and the rumor had been started by a group of vicious homosexuals.

And Datalounge didn't even exist back then!

Rona was right about the marriage.

According to wikipedia

Barrett founded the Rona Barrett Lavender Company, in Santa Ynez, near Santa Barbara, in the Central Coast region of California, as a small producer of lavender bath, beauty, food and aromatherapy products.[10] The company follows a model of using celebrity-branded consumer goods to generate funds and raise awareness of a non-profit cause. A portion of all company proceeds were donated to the Rona Barrett Foundation. According to the foundation's website, they have ceased selling lavender products and the company has been sold.

Barrett started The Rona Barrett Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to the aid and support of senior citizens in need, that was supported by a 2% portion of the profits from her lavender business until it ceased production. The foundation now only takes direct donations and is working on building a village called "the Golden Inn and Cottages" for seniors in need of proper housing and care facilities. As of May 2012 it was a pilot program that was still under development.[11]

I remember her stint on Entertainment Tonight. It was a weird fit. She wanted to do more hard hitting stories, not the usual ET fluff. I don't think she lasted very long on that show. The very last thing I remember her doing was hosting an episode of Moonlighting that gave the history of Dave and Maddie on the show up to that point. It was at the time when they were having trouble completing episodes on time, and it was basically a glorified clip show.

R28, did ET ever explain on air why she left?

Her show is on Amazon. She even has an academy awards special before Barbara Walters popularized it, where she interviews Jack Nicholson, Glenda Jackson, Carol Kane, Walter Matthau and others.

R29 it was totally what I said. She wanted to do more hard hitting, serious journalism about Hollywood type of stuff. ET was very much moving away from any of that stuff by that time. The kind of serious reporting Rona did about Hollywood on television just isn't done anymore. Yes, she trafficked in light gossip, but she also did a ton of stuff on Hollywood union disputes, salaries, the cocaine problem Hollywood was having, and things of that nature. ET, produced by Paramount, was increasingly NOT into reporting on that stuff as the '80s went on.

Rona Barrett (born Rona Burstein, October 8, 1936)

Rona Barrett on reporting from the West Coast for "Good Morning America"

Rona Barrett on her personal war on drugs - TelevisionAcademy.com/Interviews

She had a record in 1974!

[quote] it was totally what I said.

I asked whether they ever explained on air why she left.

Again Rona felt it should been HER that anchored ABC News with Harry Reasoner and NOT Barbara Walters

Rona said she was STUNNED absolutely STUNNED by Barbara Walters hiring at ABC (Rona's home) - in what seemed like a trade, Rona bolted to NBC (Barbara former "Home") - but unfortunately Rona didn't last too long.

Rona Barrett on her early days in television

R19, Kirk Douglas

What does Barbara Walters have, that I don't have?

- Rona Barrett

R41, a speech impediment.

R41. And a dirty diaper.

r22 Entertainment Tonight started in the '70s.

[quote]Rona was right about the marriage.

And about the vicious homosexuals.

Her senior community is not too far from Neverland Ranch. Perhaps they should annex it.

Rona Barrett was too in love with herself (if you read any of her books) and it became a big turn-off. Self promotion backfires after awhile especially when the person is annoying in the first place.

83 now and looks like one of the Golden Girls.

Entertainment Tonight started in Fall 1981!

On Rona’s first special, Liza is coked out of her mind! 1975!!!!

Raquel and Cher seem high as well.

Cher’s bedroom!

So glad this is on Amazon Prime!

When she was promoting the special, Barrett said that Liza was a carbon copy of her mother. At the end of the special, Liza excuses herself to the bathroom. Not to hard to figure what she was going to do there.