She came to the show ostensibly to promote a new reality program, "Househusbands of Hollywood," in which she appears with her actor husband. She turned away very few of Stern's questions about her erotic turn-ons and prattled about her extreme disdain for one of her KTTV co-hosts, Dorothy Lucey, whom she pegged as "very Christian and Bible-thumpy."
Particular highlights among the lowlights: Reynolds' description of a celebrity she had "done," others she made out with, and her recollection of fantasy play with her husband, including the time he held a gun to the back of her head. ("I don't even care that it's loaded. I said, 'Don't even tell me. I don't care.' ")
When I asked Fox GM Hale about all this, he assured me that Reynolds "adheres to our guidelines" for professional conduct when she appears on Channel 11 (from 7 to 10 a.m.).
But I'd say there appears to be a bit of a disconnect when it comes to her conduct outside the studio.
The TV hostess has said often over the years that she has been asked, and would like to shoot, a nude pictorial in Playboy magazine. Her darned bosses at Fox are just too stuffy to let it happen.
Saying he didn't recall ever fielding such a request in his six years at the station, Hale nonetheless said he was certain a Playboy shoot "would be unacceptable within the Fox station group."
Well then, I said to Hale, wouldn't talking about bondage with the aplomb of a porn star at least press the edges of the Fox code of conduct?
The news boss paused for a long moment, then answered: "I have a policy that I don't discuss our personnel matters here with outside people."
Reynolds' rep, meantime, said she had no comment.
Hale didn't have a lot to say, either, about the 95 people slated to lose their jobs in September. He rejected the thoughts of a reporter I interviewed, who worried that the station would be less capable of stretching to multiple news scenes.
And the GM added that he "absolutely" rejected Schwada's tart assessment about the reductions.
In a blog on Fox 11's website, Schwada said last week that union rules had led the station to cut the young and promising and to keep old-timers, including a few who "can be seen several times a day playing solitaire in your edit bay, have boozy breath and are operating on autopilot."
Other Fox 11 employees wonder quietly why management shouldn't share more in the painful cuts. They also wondered whether any of the hefty-salaried "talent" would ever trim their paychecks to help save worker bees.
