Herald Beats Globe on Maria Stephanos Story

September 11, 2015

Chalk one up for the feisty local tabloid.

When Fox 25 anchor Maria Stephanos announced yesterday she was leaving the station after almost 20 years, she kept the details pretty skimpy (via TVSpy).

“I have decided it’s time for me to embark on a new adventure,” said Stephanos. “I will miss working with this extraordinary team, but I know FOX25 is in good hands and will continue to grow. I am beyond blessed, to deliver the news in the place where I grew up. New England viewers are savvy and smart and I love them for that. Thank you for making me part of your family.”

 

And today’s Boston Globe Names column kept it that way.

 

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Crosstown at the Boston Herald, though, Jessica Heslam had a lot more to offer.

Fox’s Steph­anos stuns with exit

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Boston’s TV news scene was blindsided by the shocking 
announcement that Fox 25 
powerhouse anchor Maria Steph­anos is leaving after nearly two decades — just 11 months after the station’s new owner came to town.

Stephanos was tight-lipped on her stunning exit from Fox 25 yesterday but her husband, Dale Stephanos, alluded to bad blood between his popular anchor wife and station owner Cox Media Group when he wrote on his Facebook page:

“It’s so rare to find people with real integrity these days. Harder still to find people like that in the media. I’m so proud and happy for my wife today. This took a lot of guts.”

 

Drove her out graf:

The new owners want shorter stories and more of them. They also want to boost the number of stories in communities with the highest number of meters that track TV ratings, sources said.

 

Okay. Now it’s making some sense. Although we’re sure there’s more to come. Check both dailies for details.

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Boston Globe Namesniks Done Alan Cumming Wrong

April 30, 2014

Start with full disclosure: The hardreading staff met Masterpiece Mystery man Alan Cumming at his Boston University Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center Friends Speakers Series appearance Monday night and found him to be the sweetest guy ever.

Exhibit A: His Twitter feed that featured this selfie with his mum:

 

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So we were a bit dismayed when we saw this Names item in yesterday’s Boston Globe.

The comings and goings of Alan Cumming

 

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Alan Cumming spent a busy day in Boston Monday. The Scottish actor, who stars on CBS’s “The Good Wife” and is currently reprising the role of the lascivious emcee in “Cabaret” on Broadway, began the afternoon at WGBH’s Calderwood Studio, taping a series of intros for the new season of “Masterpiece Mystery.” Then it was off to BU’s Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center, where Cumming talked about his life and work. The actor was adorable as ever, even if The New York Times, in its review of “Cabaret,” called him a “little softer around the jaw.”

 

(Fuller disclosure: The hardreading staff has numerous connections to the Gotlieb Center, which we’re happy to detail upon request.)

Not to get technical about it, but said Times review  of “Cabaret” was a full-throated endorsement of Cumming’s reprise of his 1998 performance as the M.C.:

Alan Cumming, who won a Tony as the nasty M.C. in 1998, is back, offering a slightly looser, older-but-wiser variation on the same performance . . . Mr. Cumming’s M.C., who commandeered a part that Joel Grey would have seemed to own exclusively, has become the new model for most interpretations of the role . . .

So that Names item might have been a little soft around the jawboning, yeah?

 

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‘Would He’ Allen? Herald’s Eagan Says Yes

February 9, 2014

Filmmaker Woodycame to his own defense today. This New York Times piece aims to rebut allegations from last Sunday’s Times that Allen had sexually molested his adopted daughter, Dylan Farrow.

Allen writes:

TWENTY-ONE years ago, when I first heard Mia Farrow had accused me of child molestation, I found the idea so ludicrous I didn’t give it a second thought. We were involved in a terribly acrimonious breakup, with great enmity between us and a custody battle slowly gathering energy. The self-serving transparency of her malevolence seemed so obvious I didn’t even hire a lawyer to defend myself. It was my show business attorney who told me she was bringing the accusation to the police and I would need a criminal lawyer.

I naïvely thought the accusation would be dismissed out of hand because of course, I hadn’t molested Dylan and any rational person would see the ploy for what it was . . .

 

Then again, maybe not. Boston Herald columnist Margery Eagan blowtorches Allen in this piece today.

Rebuttal does little for Allen

Better to keep your mouth shut and just appear to be a pedophile than open it and remove all doubt.082003stars3

Or most doubt anyway.

I know, I know. We cannot say with certainty that filmmaker Woody Allen sexually assaulted his then-7-year-old adopted daughter Dylan Farrow two decades ago.

But, in an apparent tit-for-tat against that daughter, Woody Allen doesn’t just open his mouth but shoves his foot right in it. He’s written a loathsome and skin-crawling rebuttal to Dylan Farrow printed in the New York Times, his hometown paper.

 

And etc.

Crosstown, the Boston Globe relegated Allen’s response to a largely nonjudgmental item in the Names column. The hard waiting looks forward to some judgmental action from Globe columnists soon.

Meanwhile, roll your own here.

 

 

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