Hooray for Hollywood

Television just lurrrves a good Hollywood correspondent.

Both Today and Sunrise have their resident tinsel town storytellers who dish out all the latest goss in their own inimitable style. Set before the Hollywood sign, Sunset Strip or Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, Richard Reid and Nelson Aspen can be excitable, flamboyant, rambunctious, or bitchy. But has it always been that way, and how much do producers pressure gossip correspondents to extend their personalities for the cameras?

Richard Reid tells TV Tonight what you see is what you get.

“I’m not putting it on, and I don’t know why people, in a way, are drawn to that,” he says. “People can spot someone who’s phony or putting it on. I don’t feel as if I am. I feel as if I have a passion for what I do. I don’t think people would respond in the way that they do if I was fake.”

Reid, who has been with Today for around two and a half years, says he hasn’t been asked to ramp up his personality when the cameras roll, but he does acknowledge he is a bit of ‘a yeller.’

“Yeah I yell,” he laughs. “I don’t know why I do. I can’t help the way I am. I get very excited. I am exactly how I am all the time.

“I really don’t feel I ever really attack, or am super-bitchy,” he says. “I like to have fun, y’know send up the whole thing.”

As with Nelson Aspen on Sunrise, Reid says viewers respond to hearing their showbiz news with energy and exuberance.

“Nelson’s been around a long time, god love him. He has a big following. I’m just starting my career here and I’m getting a following. Carson Kressley has a following. A lot of the old school people do. I think it’s a ‘love love’ thing. The people know what they like and if they respond to it, so be it.”

While Reid and Aspen represent a ‘new breed’ of daily gossip presenters, there were others before them who were similarly vivacious in dishing – or even dissing – out the latest juice. For years Australia’s John Michael Howson was famous for his over-the-top entertainment reports, complete with a glass of bubbly.

Reid says others in the US veer from exuberant to slightly more composed.

“You have your straightforward types like Mary Hart but then you also have your big personalities like Cojo. Carson’s very entertaining although he’s primarily fashion and makeover. You do have big personalities, but there’s room at the table for everybody.”

And then there is showbiz blogger Perez Hilton, a modern form of 1940s gossip queens Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons.

“Perez has really carved out his own niche for himself and he’s a little bitchier,” says Reid. “He’s gotten a little nicer lately, gone a little more mainstream.

“I think since he’s gotten nicer he doesn’t feel the need to attack the way he used to.”

Reid remembers others he would watch while growing up.

“When I was a kid there was Rona Barrett. She was kind of a gossip queen and she had a few magazines and did a little bit of TV. I always liked her. And even just the journos, you have Tom Snyder who was good on TV. Movie reviewers like Rex Reed, throw in a little Paul Lynde. They were almost covertly gay. You knew they were but no-one ever talked about it.”

Reid, who is openly gay, says his unique style wasn’t always such a validating aspect of his personality.

“It’s a blessing and a curse,” he says. “I didn’t have the easiest childhood and I was definitely picked on for being so flamboyant, some might say. But it’s turned around and been a big blessing in my life.”

Some might say also showbiz reporters have become a cliche in themselves, but Reid is pragmatic.

“It’s stereotypical,” he acknowledges, “but stereotypes lie in the truth.”

In addition to his role on Today, Reid is also a regular on Domestic Blitz, as something of a pampering and makeover whiz. The show has been one of Nine’s 2008 hits, which requires Reid to spend around half his year in Australia.

“I think one of the reasons people like Domestic Blitz so much is because they can really identify with the families. Jamie Durie would say ‘you don’t have to be sick to be on my show,’ well you don’t have to be sick to be on our show either, you just have to be a really nice person. And want a little lovin’ y’know, nothing wrong with that, we all need love.”

Next year the show will air its second season, likely to see it win more episodes.

But Reid looks forward to more work on Today and Domestic Blitz, which he describes as a great experience.

“I love to work, I really do,” he says. “I’m a bit of a workaholic. It’s my hobby and my passion.”