Rona Barrett

Rona Barrett is a retired American gossip columnist who became a television interviewer and entertainment news correspondent. Born in New York City in 1936, she began writing for the Bell-McClure Syndicate in 1957, and in 1966 she was broadcasting Hollywood gossip for the Los Angeles station KABC-TV. She joined Good Morning America in 1975 and moved to NBC's Today Show in 1980, though she quit Tomorrow with Tom Snyder in 1981. From 1983 to 1986 she was a senior correspondent for Entertainment Tonight, and in 1989 she hosted ten episodes of the morning program At Rona's. Her film appearances included cameos in The Phynx (1970) and Sextette (1978), and she wrote the novel The Lovo-maniacs (1972) and the autobiography Miss Rona (1974). She retired from the media in 1991 and founded the Rona Barrett Foundation, which aids senior citizens in need. In 2009 she received a star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars.