Reporters are hot.
Stop the press! Who is that?
Perhaps it's their ability to uncover the truth about evil goings-on. Perhaps it's their brilliant research skills. More likely, it's a desire to do an exposé on them, finding out just what is under that lovely blouse.
Journalists who are attractive, basically.
A popular character in action movies and cop shows, as it's a good way to introduce a love interest who has a plausible reason for following the hero into danger. Sometimes overlaps with
Action Girl, though it predates the latter trope's popularity by a good many decades, as it was more acceptable for a woman to be a nosy Boswell than a butt-kicking Battle Babe.
Common characteristics of attractive female journalists are an abundance of "moxy", with "gams-a-plenty" or "legs from here to Kalamazoo".
Can overlap with
School Newspaper Newshound if it's set in a school. See also
Intrepid Reporter and
Going For The Big Scoop... which is not about dating the reporter, but their tendency to seek out danger.
While generally good(ish), a minority of these characters turn out to be true villains. Generally this sort overlaps with
The Vamp.
Title is
Just For Pun-
a three way one on exclusive, catch and scoop-neck top.
Examples:
Anime and Manga
Comic Books
- Lois Lane.
- Betty Brant.
- Also Norah Winters, who is very, very aware that she falls into this category.
- Vicky Vale, especially in the 1989 Batman movie, where she is the main female lead and is played by none other than Kim Basinger. The Joker becomes obsessed with her.
- Iris West and Linda Park from The Flash.
- Sundra Peale from Nexus. It turned out that she was actually a spy, and working as a reporter was just her cover identity.
- Nipsy Conniption is a more amoral example of this type.
Film
- Katie Holmes' character in Thank You For Smoking used her attractiveness to get an exclusive interview with Nick Naylor.
- The Vanity Fair reporter in Iron Man. This is the only reason Tony Stark talks to her in the first place.
Reporter: Do you ever lose an hour's sleep?
Stark: I could lose a few with you.
[
Cut To Sex]
- Peggy Brandt (Amy Yasbek) in The Mask.
- Summer, one of the potential love interests for the main character in Definitely Maybe.
- Suzanne Stone from To Die For is a good example of the more amoral kind of Hot Scoop.
- Polly Perkins from Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow (2004).
- In the action movie {Metro}} (1997) Eddie Murphy's cop character is dating a black British photojournalist, Veronica "Ronnie" Tate.
- Asakawa Reiko in the Japanese horror film Ringu and Rachel Keller in the American remake, The Ring.
Literature
- The Dresden Files: Susan Rodriguez.
- The Discworld's Sacharissa Cripslock grows out of her prim-and-properness into one of these... although she's actually only moderately attractive, but is stunningly beautiful when considered over several centuries.
- And has certain... gifts, that never go out of style in any century.
- Mary Frances Mulrooney from The Takers, a modern Two Fisted Tale by Jerry Ahern.
Live Action TV
Newspaper Comics
Real Life
- Nellie Bly, real name Elizabeth Jane Cochran. While in her twenties she was a reporter for Joseph Pulitzer's New York World who did stories exposing the horrible conditions in an asylum by pretending to be an insane patient. For her newspaper she emulated Jules Verne's Around The World in 80 Days, doing it in just 72.
Western Animation
Video Games
