Mary Hart

People magazine had been around for a short period of time, but nobody had thought about putting entertainment news on a nightly basis on television.

When you look at what we spend on entertainment, whether it's on CDs, music, DVDs, there is so much money invested in that, people want to know a little more about the stars they're paying to see or hear.

We will often talk to Liz Smith about couples and relationships because she always has an inside track, too.

We can't laugh quite as much on camera, but we sure do on the set.

Traffic is one of the most powerful films to come out in recent years. It blew me away.

They had an opening. You know, it was one of those deals. I auditioned and got it in '93.

There have been many times when we have not run stories because we cannot get it verified.

There have been many cases in which stars have come to us first to break the news because they knew the pressure was on. They wanted to have it on the air so that they could give their honest evaluation of the situation.

There are so many venues in which stars are exposed today, that we just know much more and the studios don't have the control over stars like they used to, in the 30s, 40s, and 50s.

There are people who are very highly paid to cover the truth and who will protect their clients.

There are days like any normal human being where I wake up and I don't feel like going to work.

The stars handle it very graciously. They let you know. They know how to play the game.

The pressure to be timely with news has increased every year.

Survivor has been such a hit, and out of that have come so many interesting stories from people that we don't see on the big screen. We have helped make them incredible celebrities.

As journalists, we keep pushing and pushing.

People do want to know the personal things. How far is too far to go with personal lives?

Martial arts just normally would not draw me to the box office.

Many have been with the show for years, and they have sources in the business, so we do know things, but until it is verified, we don't run with the story.

Macauley Culkin was on the show a lot. Or Haley Joe Osment.

Julia Roberts is a favorite. Everybody loves her in the Hollywood community. The public adores her.

It's nice to help remember somebody who really made a very positive difference in the world.

In a lot of cases, as in Tom and Nicole's case, the tabloids were about to break the story, so they said just let the news out. And they called organizations such as ours.

I honestly, sincerely love what I do.

I can't think of a major story that we have broken that was incorrect. But we have had to correct some things that were false; we have had to retract things.

I can't say I'm happy to be talking about John Ritter and his passing. In my 21 years of Entertainment Tonight, this really was one of the most shocking and sad things to have happened.