Mary Hart

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Mary Hart
Hart modeling for The Heart Truth charity fashion show 2007
Born	Mary Johanna Harum November 8, 1950 (1950-11-08) (age 59) Sioux Falls, South Dakota[1]
Spouse(s)	Terry Hart (1972 - 1979) (divorced); Burt Sugarman (1989 - present)

Mary Hart (born November 8, 1950) is an American television personality and has been the host of the syndicated gossip and entertainment round-up program Entertainment Tonight since 1982.

Early life

Mary Hart was born Mary Johanna Harum in Sioux Falls, South Dakota^[2] and lived there, as well as in Denmark, as a child and teenager. She speaks both Danish and Swedish fluently. Hart competed in the Miss America pageant in 1970 as Miss South Dakota, and finished in the top ten. Two years later, Hart graduated from Augustana College in Sioux Falls and produced and anchored her own cable TV talk show. That led to jobs on the air in Iowa and Oklahoma. She worked for WKY-TV (now KFOR-TV) in Oklahoma City where she stayed for a period of time. She was co-host on the television show Dannysday with Danny Williams. She was married to Terry Hart from 1972 to 1979.

Career

Mary began her TV career at KMTV, the CBS station in Omaha, NE. In 1976, she went to KTVY (now KFOR-TV) in Oklahoma City, where she co-hosted a show called Dannysday. Determined to leave journalism behind, she moved to the Los Angeles neighborhood of Westwood in 1979 with $10,000 in the bank. Hart landed a small role on the soap opera "Days of our Lives," as well as some TV commercials. Almost broke, she became a co-host on a Los Angeles local program, "PM Magazine." That led to a job in 1981 as co-host of Regis Philbin's first national talk show. When that show was canceled four months later, "Entertainment Tonight" interviewed her about what it felt like to be canceled. The day after the interview, she was hired as an "E. T." correspondent. Thirteen weeks later, she was named the show's co-host, along with Ron Hendren.

In 1984, Hendren was replaced by Robb Weller, who was replaced by John Tesh in 1986, who was replaced by Bob Goen in 1996. Soon after her hiring by ET, Hart chose Jay Bernstein as her manager. Hart is known for her shapely legs, leading to an endorsement contract with Hanes for that company's line of pantyhose in 1987. She has never worked barelegged while hosting Entertainment Tonight.^{[citation needed]} Jay Bernstein also had her legs insured for $1 million each.^[3][4] In 1991, the New England Journal of Medicine reported that Hart's voice had triggered seizures in an epileptic woman.^[5] This was later referenced in an episode of Tiny Toon Adventures^[6] and the NBC sitcom Seinfeld, where Kramer (Michael Richards) suffers from convulsions whenever he hears Hart's voice.

Hart has been parodied in Animaniacs in the character "Mary Heartless". She had also voiced a cartoon character named "Fairy Hart" in an episode of The Fairly OddParents where Bob Goen voiced "Bob Glimmer", and in The Fairly Oddparents TV movie, Fairly OddBaby.

Hart at the 81st Academy Awards in February 2009

In May 2009, Hart suffered a broken left wrist^[7] due to an accident at home (not due to any exotic activity, despite her jokes about it). While the wrist was healing, she wore various brightly colored slings designed to match or complement her wardrobe for each show.

Personal life

Hart lives in an affluent part of Los Angeles with her film-producer husband, Burt Sugarman. The two were married in 1989 and have one son. She is also a convert to Judaism.^[8] She is a fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Mary Hart

• Mary Hart at the Internet Movie Database
• Mary Hart's bio courtesy of ET Online