Years ago when someone would ask me my ultimate career goal I’d say, “to replace Mary Hart on Entertainment Tonight!” Well Mary Hart is finally leaving the show and fortunately for me, my goal of succeeding her was happily abandoned long ago – so I’m not disappointed that I wouldn’t be considered for the job in a million years!
By all accounts, Mary is a super lady. I peg her age somewhere between 55 and 142 but it’s really hard to tell especially when she gets under those specially placed ET lights that make her look eternally 30. Not one of the articles about her pending departure mentioned her age but a few online biographies say she’s 60. When a camera catches her at an event and the lighting is more of a get-whatever-you-can variety, you can tell she’s no spring chicken. But there’s nothing wrong with that. She’s a beautiful woman and despite having a job that requires her to be inexplicably perky while trying to make a Kardashian pregnancy rumour sound like legitimate news, she actually comes across as intelligent.
I can remember when the show launched. It was so revolutionary to have a “news” program devoted entirely to entertainment and now clones of ET are everywhere. Variety reports that Mary is being forced to take one-half of her annual $5 million salary for this final year. Surely they can hire someone else for that pittance! Once again the change is probably mostly about saving money. Let the games to replace the dame with the gams begin!