Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and KTLA anchor Lu Parker began dating in 2009, after which she was moved off the weekend anchor desk and became a special assignments reporter who didn’t cover local politics. Villaraigosa had not been keen to discuss his personal life, Kate Linthicum and David Zahniser report:
Villaraigosa declined to answer The Times’ questions in recent weeks about the status of his relationship with Parker — calling one reporter an “idiot” and another a “bottom-feeder” for asking. He also refused to say whether Parker has moved out of Getty House.
“My personal life isn’t any of your business any more than yours is mine,” he said Wednesday after an appearance at Loyola Marymount University, where he publicly mused about the breakup of his marriage to Corina Villaraigosa five years ago.
Parker’s the second newsperson Villaraigosa’s dated. In 2007, while still married, he dated Mirthala Salinas, then a Telemundo reporter who covered him. Telemundo suspended Salinas for two months, then reassigned her before she resigned. They split in late 2007. His relationship with Parker raised eyebrows in L.A. in part because of Parker’s website, which highlights her hyphenate career as an actress, a former Miss USA and a newscaster. In 2009, James Rainey wrote that the self-promotion made her appear “frivolous”:
Doesn’t it seem odd to anyone else that the same person can furrow her brow in the role of serious newswoman — chasing fires through the hills, announcing election night tallies and bemoaning gang violence — and then preen her way through a modeling video?
Parker’s boss told Rainey there was “no conflict.”
A KTLA insider offered the further assurance that Parker usually relies on scripts written by others. So she won’t have a major role in shaping content.
Being told a news reader is just that didn’t surprise me. It didn’t inspire tremendous confidence either.
After news of the breakup, that same boss wouldn’t tell Linthicum and Zahniser whether Parker would move back into an anchor role. “Lu’s always been a part of the KTLA family and she continues to be,” news director Jason Ball told the reporters.
Previously: The Mayor, the TV Anchor And the Ethics Fireworks in Los Angeles | Many reporters have done well after flings with news sources | Telemundo puts LA mayor’s girlfriend on leave during probe | ‘I’ve never felt more fulfilled in my life,’ says TV reporter dating LA mayor | KTLA news boss: Anchor-mayor fling poses no conflict
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