JeffTheAlpaca

What is the overall opinion of real life TV news anchors appearing as themselves in movies?

Do you think a movie is more authentic if they show Anderson Cooper, Larry King,Charlie Rose, or some other real life news anchor or personality or is it annoying?

What were the most memorable appearances?

Batman V Superman had both Cooper and Rose along with Neil DeGrasse Tyson and Nancy Grace.

Solid Snake

I thought it worked for it. I mostly hate in films where like the world isn't strongly represented to reflect that that can fit real life news people. Ghostbusters works it so well. Cuz the world is set up so strongly that this is our world.

Mike86

I don't mind it in films or shows that take place in a real setting. Sometimes I find it a bit odd when it's in something with a fictional setting like Batman V Superman since Gotham City and Metropolis aren't real places. Same thing with product placement in fictional settings.

bunkaroo

Several local Chicago news personalities were featured in The Fugitive. They were simply credited as Newscaster so I supposed that means they were playing themselves.

Brack

Sometimes the appearances work, but unless they're done for a laugh I find them distracting, taking me out of the movie for a second or two. A lot of times they're in movies where they generally serve no purpose except for the film to be somewhat "current". No big deal, but usually unnecessary.

Ash Ketchum

I watched "Make It Pop: Summer Splash" on Nickelodeon last night and Nancy O'Dell appeared as herself on ET announcing the "secret concert" by the pop group at the center of the show. Which surprised the hell out of me because I didn't know she still had a career and that that freakin' show (Entertainment Tonight) was still on!

I think back to GAMERA: GUARDIAN OF THE UNIVERSE, which had a number of Japanese news personalities appearing on screen as themselves.

And AMERICAN PRESIDENT with Michael Douglas and, I think, Annette Bening, which had a number of Washington reporters covering the White House playing themselves. The film made them look good, so of course they agreed to do it.

THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL (1951) had a number of famous radio personalities and newsmen playing themselves in a story of a flying saucer landing in Washington D.C. at a time when flying saucers were constantly in the news. (Seems strange to recall such a time since flying saucers never went away but no one's reporting on them anymore.) The great thing about this film is that modern viewers can get to see and hear some once-prominent news people like Drew Pearson and H.V. Kaltenborn. So there's historical value in it.

Defiant1

I remember Contact being heavily criticized for having too many CNN reporters in it. Considering that the movie was from Warner, it made it look like they were promoting their sister company.

Sometimes they'll get a real non-famous reporter to play one in the movie.

Why So Blu?

Nightcrawler has a bunch of local cats. I remember Fight Club and many of the disaster flicks of the mid 90's and beyond having more local and national ones, too.

Mondo Kane

Having watched LA news from the mid 90s to the mid 2000s, I noticed that it was mostly FOX or NBC folks who got the movie gigs back then.

My favorite has always been Paul Moyer in Heat. He's the one that gets to tell the world about that awesome shoot-out!

Why So Blu?

John Beard, as well.

gmanca

Yeah, I don't like it that way either, I'd rather they come out with exaggerated characters that imitate known media personalities.

The SF Bay Area had quite of few instances of local TV anchors and reporter in films, mainly from the mid 80's to mid 90's, Dennis Richmond, Elaine Corral, Frank Somerville,

The Valeyard

Spider-Man 3 gave Hal Fishman a lot of screen time. "This may be the end of Spider-Man."

bluetoast

I believe that also had Jay Leno making a joke about the Miss Universe pageant.

Brian T

I'll take real newspeople any day over actors or extras pretending to be them. The profession requires a whole different set of precise 'performance' skills that almost no actors actually possess and few seem to be able to mimic in a sustained fashion. As others have noted, real newscasters add to the feeling that the story is taking place in the world we know. In terms of regional/affiliate newscasters, awareness of many of them will be stronger to those who live within their broadcast range, but for the rest of us the cues are still there to tell us that this person most likely does TV news for a living. Even top actors virtually NEVER get the speech patterns and body language right, and bit players are generally always worse; in both cases I'm instantly one-step removed from the narrative as soon as a "fake" reporter pops up on screen behaving nothing like the real thing.

By the way, wasn't there another thread about this here recently, or am I just experiencing deja vu?

bluetoast

One of the best depictions of local news with the right intonation and corny jokes is this scene from The Sopranos (the first minute of the clip below). Looks like the actors for the anchor and reporter were actual reporters, but not playing themselves.

Numanoid

If I recognize the reporter, it always takes me out of the movie for a moment. Unless it's a comedy, then it's usually a laugh to see them. The times it works the best are when I have no idea who they are, so they do feel very natural in the role. Like the BBC guy in Shaun of the Dead. Apparently a real anchor, and very convincing in the movie.

Obi-Wanma

Local Detroit TV Personalities Jay Towers and Erika Erickson also appear in the film as reporters, even using their own names, but appearing as Gotham/Metropolis reporters. As a local, that takes me right out of the movie, but I'm sure the rest of the world doesn't notice/care.

fujishig

Wait, what?

Yeah the LA newscasters seem to always appear in movies, but I doubt most people know or care, and they should be better than some random actor pretending to do that job.

GoldenJCJ

Jay Leno whored himself out an awful lot for movies when he was hosting the Tonight Show.

Conan seems to have taken over where Leno left off.

Alan Smithee

1987's "Burgler" with Whoopi Goldberg had a lot of real-life KTVU news people, appearing just as they did on the news then (this was right when the Fox network had started and began killing off that station's greatness.) KTVU was also featured prominently in "Mrs. Doubtfire" but not really as itself.

BobO'Link

With "personalities" it's just plain stupid and generally adds nothing to a film, usually detracting more than helping.

With reporters, I think less of them due to such appearances. IMHO real "reporters/anchormen" have *no* business appearing in "entertainment" films, especially as themselves, as it undermines whatever credibility they might have (if they had any to start with). You'd *never* see Edward R. Murrow or Walter Cronkite, to name two, shill themselves out in that manner.

For both, if I recognize them I'm *always* pulled out of the movie/film while they are on the screen. It doesn't help that most of the people who make such appearances are horrible actors.

Nick Danger

Ash Ketchum

Murrow did something like that when he agreed to film a prologue to Michael Todd's AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS. I'm betting he got some criticism for it. I don't recall the content of it, though.

Getting back to the OP's question, an example I really like is ROBOCOP (1987) where Leeza Gibbons (from Entertainment Tonight) and Mario Machado (whom I assume was a local L.A. TV personality) provided satirical news reports at regular points throughout the movie. I remember finding those bits really funny, esp. since I was watching ET at the time and marveled at Leeza's gorgeous vapidity. If Vanna White had done it, it would have been even funnier.

SuperJim88

I'd be more concerned if one of these personalities later turned out to be a real life rapist or child molester. It can totally change a film after the fact.

davidh777

Speaking of Bay Area reporters, I remember a local appearing in a minor film called The Star Chamber back in the '80s, playing a reporter but not himself. It stood out to me because my sister hated him (the real-life reporter, not the movie character).

I like it when sports reporters appear as themselves in sports movies, maybe because they tend to be lighter than regular movies like dramas so it seems more fun than taking you out of the movie.

That can happen with anyone, though, like OJ Simpson.