Rona Barrett

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American gossip columnist of Hollywood's choicest inside dirt. In her 30-year-career, 1960-90, he has reported on radio and on TV, has written columns and edited a newsletter. She founded a company, "Rony Barrett Enterprises." As a kid, Barrett was crippled with an arrested case of muscular dystrophy, plain and heavy. With skill, street smarts and Hollywood know how, she eventually became a great-looking glamour girl. Starting as a syndicated columnist, she segued into writing for movie magazines and doing guest shots on TV shows. By the mid-1970s she was well established. She had come out with a novel, a juicy autobiography and a record album. She also put out a how-to book, "Rona Barrett Tells You How You Can Look Rich and Achieve Sexual Ecstasy." When she joined ABC's "Good Morning America" in 1975, she wielded enormous power. Still, she had enemies and detractors; people loved her or hated her. She was called "Rona-Rat" by Frank Sinatra and was allegedly sent a live tarantula by Ryan O'Neal. Barrett made a step in poor judgment when she jumped to NBC in 1980 for am embattled stint as the West Coast anchor of "Tomorrow" with Tom Snyder, who was not happy about their little team. Their fights escalated to where Barrett refused to appear with Snyder. For a time, she was a regular on "The Today Show" and in 1982 even had her own weekly prime-time program on NBC, "Television Inside and Out," a shorty that lasted four weeks. She then launched "The Barrett Report," a $1,200-a-year subscription-only confidential newsletter for executives in the industry and on Wall Street. By the time she got the newsletter to the subscribers, the news was old news. In 1986 she left a TV job as senior correspondent on "Entertainment Tonight," and hit a dry spell for a few years. She all but disappeared before signing an NBC agreement to host a series of 10 half-four daytime talk shows in 1988. Barrett's low point came in 1971 when, depressed about the folding of an 11-year relationship and pressured with non-stop work demands, she made a suicide attempt. Rescued by a friend, she was later diagnosed as bi-polar and prescribed the med's that helped her reach a better place. In 1973, on a blind date she met Bill Trowbridge, a divorced father of four. He became her husband, friend and helpmate. They bought a farm in the Santa Ynez Valley. As her media career phased out, Barrett launched a business, "Lavender," a line of beauty and food products. Since 1974, they've taken care of her dad (born in 1908) who moved to live with them. Her mom died in 1994 at age 80. Keeping in touch with the media business, Barrett writes a celebrity column for her Web site. Link to Wikipedia biography