Not a Trained Reporter? Just Act the Part

You needn’t be a journalist to play one in a newscast.

Whether an interview or tour, or as the network now calls it, a “visit,” Leonardo DiCaprio’s now-famous videotaped meeting at the White House with President Clinton for ABC News speaks for itself. A 25-year-old movie idol was dispatched by a national news organization to meet with the president on the environment for its April 22 “Planet Earth 2000” special--a pair of actors going one-on-one.

In his book, “Broadcasting Realities,” successful agent Ken Lindner cites four main routes to breaking into broadcasting news, ranging from starting in a small market to getting a job as an intern or assistant at a large-market station and working your way up.

In a terrible oversight, Lindner omits the movie star route.

As for DiCaprio, his standing with the media was affirmed when he made the cover of Time magazine in February after being named Earth Day 2000 chairperson, and even earlier when wire stories reported his endorsement of Al Gore for president, as if that mattered to anyone old enough to vote.

Leo definitely has legs. Yet know that his chat with Clinton has been widely ridiculed and become so embarrassing to ABC News, it plans to air only bits and pieces of its interview.

Not that ABC News is coming to this from a position of strength on headline issues, given Diane Sawyer’s recent portrayal of a somersaulting first-grade teacher during her exploitative interview with Elian Gonzalez for “Good Morning America” and “20/20.” That indulgent Elian exhibit on national TV was arranged without the approval of the 6-year-old’s father, in effect placing ABC News in the camp of the boy’s Miami relatives who had pitched him to the networks and claimed to speak for him.

Next question: When will ABC News consider Leo’s best interests, do the right thing and return him to the custody of Hollywood?

Enough with the hand-wringing, however.

DiCaprio and Clinton schmoozing for ABC News cameras is not as revolutionary as it may seem. Among the many gambits tried by CBS to juice its lowly morning show ratings over the years, for example, was the hiring of actress Mariette Hartley to be a host. And elsewhere on morning shows, celebrities have been hired as feature reporters.

In fact, actors have been impersonating journalists on TV for years, from CNN’s Larry King, who asks his guests questions fed to him through his earpiece, to scripted local anchors who live or die by their TelePrompTers and venture out of the studio only to enhance their images and play reporter during ratings sweeps.

And what about that burlesque boob on KCBS, Mike Boguslawski, whose snarling, foaming, fist-pumping, show-boating rants and choreographed rages at public officials over gas prices these days are tailored for the camera?

Talk about making a mockery of journalism. What a slobbery, spewing ham the Bogster is in his role as self-proclaimed, self-congratulatory champion of “the people.” What bellowing tirades, what thunderous stagecraft, his personal script calling for him to do everything but stand on his head, turn purple and shoot steam from his ears. Well, it’s early in the week.

Speaking of actors, check this out, too. At the end of this season, Andrea Thompson will exchange her role as Det. Jill Kirkendall on ABC’s “NYPD Blue” for one as a news reporter and part-time anchor at KRQE, a TV station in Albuquerque, the nation’s 47th largest market.

Get outta here.

Yup, it’s true. She’s leaving for browner pastures.

You have to admire Thompson, who surely will be taking a large pay cut to do something she says that she’s wanted to do for some time, while getting more time to spend with her 7-year-old son and attend college. For her, it’s win-win.

Thompson, who has been modeling and acting professionally since age 16, has never been a journalist. But that won’t stop her from immediately playing one at KRQE. Although a late-starter at age 40, her work on “NYPD Blue” indicates that she possesses two prerequisites for success in her new career: She’s good-looking and a capable actress.

But what does she bring to the table news-wise besides a familiar face and TV star charisma? “She’s bright, very well informed, very serious about wanting to cover stories in a meaningful way and wants to have an impact on her community through her coverage,” KRQE news director Dan Salamone said from Albuquerque Tuesday. “And she also has the wherewithal to make this transition. She’s better prepared for this job than a lot of people I hire out of the Yumas or El Pasos.”

Salamone said Thompson wants to study economics, and plans to take her college SATs this summer.

He said he contacted her about the KRQE job after reading in a trade magazine about her following around CBS News anchor Dan Rather during his millennium coverage and mentioning her ambition to enter TV news. Salamone said she will receive “coaching” and begin her KRQE career this summer as a reporter and fill-in anchor.

The lowest of Albuquerque’s three stations in news ratings, KRQE “has a history of taking people who have come down roads untraveled to make their way to television news,” Salamone said. Take KRQE reporter Darren White, he said. Only a few months ago, White was New Mexico’s secretary of public safety.

Like White, Salamone said, Thompson’s raw talent will have to be molded. “If I had to project where she’ll be in three years,” he said, “I’d say she’d be a correspondent for one of the networks.”

Just like Leo.

*

Howard Rosenberg’s column appears Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. He can be contacted via e-mail at calendar.letters@latimes.com.

Earth Day Reporter: * ABC to air excerpts of Leonardo DiCaprio’s interview with President Clinton. F7