Newspaper reporter Steve Leyton (Power) is the only Intrepid Reporter that can get the dirt for the Daily Express, much to the chagrin of his editor, Martin Canavan (Ameche). The arrival of Tony Gateson (Young), the young, attractive countess returning from a sojourn with her foreign fiancé, has all the newspaper hounds chomping at the bit for the latest on her romance.
Steve pulls a fast one on the countess by pretending to be a helpful escort, protecting her from the newspaper men. As such, she unknowingly spills the beans about her future plans to the reporter. When she discovers the deception, however, she won’t let him off easy - the newspapers, their reports, and specifically, Steve – have created deceptive and enraging headlines about her and she’s out for blood.
So, she concocts a plan: she tells the reporters that she’s engaged to Steve – and is giving him a million-dollar bonus to boot! Not only does this undermine the hot story Steve had for the Daily Express but also any thing that comes out of Steve’s mouth.
With Tony systematically pulling the rug out of any of Steve’s plans, she effectively makes him persona non grata at the Daily Express and makes him a target to salesmen of all types, barraging him with pitches wherever he goes.
He futilely tries to convince Tony to stop, but she’s having too much fun destroying his life.
Hilarity Ensues in screwball fashion.
Love is News demonstrates the following tropes:
- Bad "Bad Acting": Since Tony has driven Steve to desperation, he takes up a ridiculous offer to become a vaudeville act, reenacting his engagement and subsequent breakup. When Tony finds Steve practicing with a floozy that sounds more like Betty Boop than her, she's not amused.
- Batman Gambit: Tony decides to play on Steve’s reporter instincts and have him do exactly what she wants all the while making him think she's going to finally tell the truth.
- Bathtub Scene: Tony calmly has a conversation with her friend while in the bath, as you do.
- Blessed with Suck: Poor Steve is apparently going to be a millionaire but only has a few cents to his name. With Tony’s newspaper endorsement though, he receives thousands of offers for cars, performance fees, houses, you name it. Not that he’d take up any of the offers.
- Blackmail: Count Andre attempts to sell Tony’s love letters to the Daily Express. They buy it from him, angering Tony. However, Steve bought them only to destroy them. When Tony finds this out, she runs to Steve to confess her feelings.
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: It’s clear that the longer Tony plays her game, she and Steve start to like each other.
- Cassandra Truth: No matter how hard Steve tries to let Martin know that Tony is lying, she places him in so many compromising situations that Martin doesn’t believe him anymore.
- The Casanova: Martin is on his fourth marriage and has a kept girl in a hotel.
- Covered in Mud: To get his attention after getting out of jail, Tony feigns a car accident and a faint. Worried, Steve carries her, but knowing her ploy, he drops her in a huge puddle of mud.
- Da Editor: Martin is always raging that the Daily Express has to get the first and exclusive scoop on every story.
- Drives Like Crazy: While chasing Steve, Tony speeds and drives recklessly in her roadster. She is promptly caught by the police and thrown in the municipal jail.
- Embarrassing Nickname: Tony calls Steve "Stevie", or worse, "Stevekins" much to his chagrin. Even the newspapers take to calling him Stevekins.
- Extra! Extra! Read All About It!: When discovering Tony’s deception, Steve bumps into a paperboy who’s screaming the news headline about his engagement.
- Follow That Car: Steve screams this word-for-word when chasing down Tony’s car.
- Funny Foreigner: George Sanders is the European Count Andre who’s a fortune hunter.
- Not What It Looks Like: Steve finally convinces Martin to meet him at a restaurant where he thinks Tony will reveal the truth. In fact, she shows up, kisses Steve in front of several reporters and cameras, making it look like another set up to make Martin look ridiculous.
- Romantic Fake–Real Turn: Unsurprisingly, Tony starts falling in love with Steve (and vice versa) especially when they share a unexpected kiss. They don't dare admit their feelings until the very end.
- Running Gag: Martin’s wife calling him at all hours:Martin: Yes, Mabel….Also Martin:Take Leyton off the payroll!Put Leyton on the payroll! And give him a bonus!
- Take This Job and Shove It:Steve: [Martin and him are laughing] Remember the last time you tore up my contract and gave me a new one?Steve: [still laughing] Remember what I told you to do with it? Well, if you're not too tired, do it again! [they both continue to laugh hysterically but Canavan stops as Steve leaves]
- Tempting Fate:Tony: The next man who puts a ring on this finger will have to have a good ol' American title; like plumber, bricklayer, motorman - anything but reporter.
- Tomboyish Name: Antionette Gateson goes by Tony.
- Second-Face Smoke: While in jail in adjacent cells, Tony asks for Steve’s final cigarette. He gloats about enjoying a cigarette she can't have and blows the smoke into her face. She gets her revenge by biting his finger and getting the cigarette.
- Variant Chess: While at the bar, Steve plays checkers with fellow newspapermen with beer mugs and liquor shots as stones.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Martin and Steve seem to have a love/hate relationship but can’t live without each other.
- Worst News Judgment Ever: The dalliances of a reporter and heiress are front page news:STEVEKINS IN JAIL TO BE NEAR HIS TONIKINS
- Zany Scheme: Tony takes umbrage with Steve's assertion that since she's a public figure, she should get used to the newspapers' stories - whether true or not. Because of this, she decides to lie to all the newspapers and say she's engaged to Steve. This leads to his life being ruined until she tells the truth.Steve: Goodbye, Miss Gateson. Thank you very much for the cigarette and a pleasant chat.Tony: Which you will now distort into a pack of lies!Steve: We gotta give our readers what they want.Tony: I wonder how you’d like to be mobbed by a bunch of peeping toms. How’d you like being a public freak?Steve: Me? Listen lady, if I had your money, they could put a press box at the keyhole of my bedroom door.Tony: So, it’s no go? You won’t kill the story.Steve: Nope! Sorry.
