Banfield gets NBC's bad news (Ashleigh's been fired)

New York Daily News ^ | 3.26.04 | Lloyd Grove

[mhking]

Onetime cable television star Ashleigh Banfield - a publicity magnet even before she achieved celebrity in the aftermath of 9/11 - is out at NBC News.

The 36-year-old former rock singer - once a fashion icon for her blond tresses and her ever-present on-air glasses, but whose career took a slide after she dyed her hair dark brown - joined the network's MSNBC outlet four years ago, and has been working without a contract since late January.

"Regrettably, we were unable to agree on a new assignment for her," an NBC News spokeswoman told me yesterday. "We thank her for her hard work and wish her well."

The native Canadian was a controversial figure at NBC, where detractors spread rumors of diva-like behavior and sniped at her supposed journalistic deficiencies.

Banfield didn't try to butter up colleagues and supervisors, and instead cast herself as an enemy of the Establishment. She once showed up for anchor duties at MSNBC's Secaucus studios in New Jersey sporting a T-shirt that shouted, in garish glitter: "Starf--r."

But on camera, the message was discreetly concealed by a conservative jacket.

On Sept. 11, 2001, her dramatic reports from Ground Zero won her star status and her own nightly live show from Afghanistan and Pakistan, "A Region in Conflict" (for which she wore a burka and dyed her hair) and, later, "Ashleigh Banfield: On Location."

But in due course, her star dimmed.

Banfield's manager, Alfred Geller, told me: "Since her contract expired, we have been exploring with a variety of NBC components the possibility of future activity that would include cable and network. At the end of these explorations, we were mutually unable to come to an accommodation that was okay with everybody. It didn't work. Life marches on."

Geller said Banfield, who didn't return my calls, is looking at syndication, as well as other network and cable television possibilities. "She will be just fine, thank you very much."

[Bobby777]

so I was right about her ... I thought I smelled that when she gushed about Chairman Arafat ... thanks for the info ...

[breakem]

as long as there's cue cards, scripts, and 300 channels, whe'll have a job.

[breakem]

she'll have a job also

[devane617]

Those glasses are so yesterday. I remember her from DFW before she moved up, but did not know she was a singer or model.

[hummingbird]

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.............

[hummingbird]

She once showed up for anchor duties at MSNBC's Secaucus studios in New Jersey sporting a T-shirt that shouted, in garish glitter: "Starf--r."

"Ya' gottallotta class goin' there for ya', toots!"

[NYCVirago]

Never trust anyone who wears fake glasses to look smart, like Ashleigh Banfield and Tina Fey.

[NCC-1701]

Maybe this will catch on. Isn't there another Canadian "journalist" that we all know about that needs to have a boot shoved up the verticle smile and shwn the door?

[Rummyfan]

It's also an old Rolling Stones number, back from the mid-seventies.

[Simcha7]

SHALOM!

Let's Just PRAY...

That Ashleigh does Not show Up on FOX CABLE NEWS.

Like Jerry Rivera did!

OY VEY!

[ladyinred]

Starfour? Starfurr?

LOL! Took me a moment to figure out what the shirt said!

[ladyinred]

Is it fair to say I won't miss her?

[twigs]

I thought Ashleigh was one of the best reporters following 911. When she sticks to what she does well, I think she's one of the best. I hope she does some soul-searching and re-emerges doing the kind of journalism of which she is most capable.