THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, August 4, 1994 TAG: 9408040033
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E01 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: By Larry Bonko, Television Writer
LENGTH: Medium: 78 lines
WHEN YOU'RE hot, you're hot. And Mary Matalin, the host of CNBC's ``Equal Time,'' is one hot infobabe.
The talk show she hosts nightly at 8:30 - it's repeated at 11:30 - about how the game of politics is played in Washington, D.C. is the buzz of the Beltway. Matalin appears frequently on the ``Today'' show. She popped up on late-night television in a chic black frock not long ago, admitting to David Letterman that she likes her vodka on the rocks.
Matalin has a book in the works. She made headlines by saying it's a really stupid idea - ``beyond absurd'' - for the Walt Disney Co. to propose bringing synthetic history to a 3,000-acre site in northern Virginia where the real thing abounds. It's like favoring an artificial Christmas tree over a live one, Matalin told reporters.
This is an infobabe with opinions.
It's OK to call her an infobabe. That what she calls herself.
Matalin also refers to herself as ``bubble butt,'' and admits to sitting on phone books during her 30-minute talk show because that somehow makes the ``bubble'' in her butt look smaller.
She's not a feminist and has said so often on ``Equal Time.''
When feminists appear on her show, complaining that the door to the man's world needs to be opened more than it has been, Matalin is likely to say something very un-feminist like, ``If men don't want women bursting into their environment, that's OK because I don't want them bursting into our environment.''
She had a raging feminist on the other night who said it's wrong to deny women the opportunity to be quarterbacks in the National Football League.
Matalin didn't have to say a word. Her expression said it all:
``This guest is loopy.''
Loopy is welcome on ``Equal Time.''
Matalin refers to the show's viewers as ``loopy cultists'' and invites them to call her on the phone. Many from Hampton Roads qualify as ``loopy cultists.'' I don't know how she does it, but Matalin takes the calls from here and elsewhere on a phone that isn't plugged in.
Loopy TV.
Here is Matalin's philosophy on doing television, which I heard when she met critics in Los Angeles not long ago: ``I don't know what I'm supposed to do or say on television, and therefore I behave in our little studio the same way I behave at home when people are around, drinking a beer and having a conversation.
``I want the show to feel like a kind of conversation.''
Matalin lately has been hosting ``Equal Time'' alone or with guest co-hosts who have included writers, political insiders and Andy Rooney's daughter, Emily, who is a TV producer. She started ``Equal Time'' with Jane Wallace at her side. Just about the time the two were really humming, creating TV talk-show chemistry, and giving off sparks, Wallace quit to go work for the new fX channel.
Matalin told viewers that Wallace left for more bucks, and that was that.
While Matalin has been making do with guests as co-hosts, the ``Equal Time'' ratings have slipped, which is probably the reason why producer Ann Klenk was let go recently.
Matalin is as unconventional as talk-show hosts get. She picks out her own wardrobe and brags about it. She criticizes herself (``I'm a terrible host'') almost as much as she criticizes President Clinton. ``His plan for health-care reform is into the toilet,'' she said on ``Equal Time'' not long ago.
Would you expect less from someone who served as deputy campaign manager in President Bush's re-election campaign? She's also been chief of staff to the chairman of the Republican National Committee.
So, who did Matalin up and marry about a year ago? The man who was a key player in getting Clinton elected to the presidency in 1992. James Carville.
She refers to her husband as ``serpent head.''
The woman has a name for everyone.
Would Barbara Walters dare go on national TV and call herself ``bubble butt''? Mary Matalin does, and her shoot-from-the hip, say-just-about-anything-that-pops-into-your-mind approach to TV talk has made her one hot infobabe. by CNB