You know who I'm talking about. She's the kiss-butt idiot who Belushi's character slips the LSD. Two NBC reporters have been brought up as possibilities. Jessica Savitch and Diane Sawyer.
http://lilt.ilstu.edu/smexpos/cinergia/salvador.htm
I think I've heard Diane Sawyer, but I doubt it.
He kinda kisses like an adolescent
From what I have read, Diane Sawyer was In El Salvador the day Reagan was elected. I don't know if that means she is who the character is based on, but the person and place jibe for those that like to speculate. I have not researched if Stone/Boyle ever specifically mentioned who the reporter was supposed to be. The character could just represent the established news houses that Boyle and the film are mocking.
shareIS she EVERY Fox News presenter?
shareSince there was no Fox News in 1980, that is a case of life imitating art. But lackey "reporters" are hardly anything new.
Whether or not Diane Sawyer was in El Salvador, the character seems much closer to Savitch. Sawyer had White House experience -- granted, in the Nixon administration -- but partly because of that, I don't believe her intelligence was ever as much in question as Savitch's. Savitch was widely reviled among journalists who were understandably furious that she rose so quickly to stardom with so little experience or demonstrated journalistic talent. (Was she really "the dumbest woman ever" -- as I think Dan Rather put it? Hard to say). Also, there is a scene, somewhat anachronistic, that seems to borrow from a real event. Shortly before her death, Savitch had a breakdown on air, where she appeared to be stoned out of her mind. And sure enough, the film has a cheap laugh when Doctor Rock spikes the blond reporter's drink with LSD and she collapses during a newscast. (I still love when she asks Major Max, who's obviously lying about his part in the assassination of a left-wing Archbishop, whether he's sure he will win "both the Catholic vote and the women's vote." Someone hasn't figured out she's not in the U.S. anymore!)
If you don't think it's Savitch, I have another suggestion. Jeff Gannon? But seriously, folks, we are talking about pioneers for the role of attractive blond women in the media: http://www.slate.com/id/2136418/?nav=fix
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I think it was David Brinkley who called Savitch the "dumbest person" he had ever met. As you pointed out, this was before Murdoch's FOX News.
shareThanks for the correction; yes, it was Brinkley and not Rather.
Also, having watched the Savitch "breakdown" tape recently (it's on YouTube) I'm a little surprised it was talked up as being so bad. Her speech is definitely slurred but the whole episode looks much more like too much Novacaine than too much cocaine.
But I'm still almost certain this incident was the basis for the LSD dosing scene, which is very funny in a sadistic kind of way. This even though the Savitch "breakdown" happened a couple of years after the event depicted in the film.
CNN -- Where the drapes match the carpet.
She's a precursor to all the blondes on Fox for sure.
Traveler, there is no road;
the road is made as you travel.
-Antonio Machado
I don't mean this personally against you, but I wanted to say I am surprised so many people would include Diane Sawyer in a potential list of "idiot blonde journalists." Sawyer is a top notch reporter and has had a long and respectable career. She was never an airhead or someone who got unfair breaks because of her looks. She fought hard for respect in this profession.
It could definitely be Jessica Savitch on the other hand.