Maria Bartiromo and Erin Burnett of CNBC Duke It Out While Wall Street Crashes
Who cares about the fact that Wall Street suffered one of its worst losses of 2007 Thursday. There appears to be far more instability on the set of financial network CNBC between correspondent babes Maria Bartiromo and Erin Burnett.
Rifts. Uproar. Agitated. Riled. These were just some of the words New York Post's Page Six uses to describe Maria Bartiromo's reaction to the rise of Erin Burnett.
An inside source tells Page Six the Money Honey has been fuming that curvy Burnett, in addition to her duties as anchor of "Street Signs" and co-anchor of "Squawk on the Street," is getting substantial airtime on the "Today" show, which gives her a much bigger audience. "Maria is like, hey, why isn't it me on the 'Today' show? She's very jealous of all the attention Erin is getting," our source said.
A recent New York Post poll had Burnett handily winning as one of the hottest financial news anchors on Wall Street gossip blog Dealbreaker.com. She got 37 percent of the votes while rival CNBC anchor Becky Quick came in second with 22 percent. Bartiromo only got 13 percent.
Erin Burnett has also more actively reported on the movement to make online gambling regulated in the US. (watch video here)
class="entrybody"> "If you are fortunate enough to be home early in the afternoons you may have seen this hottie reporting the day’s Business News on CNBC," a blogger once wrote on Republican Operative."What I like most about her is that she knows what she is talking about (most of the time). She has worked for Bloomberg TV, CNN, and for Goldman Sacks as an analyst specializing in mergers and acquisitions."
That post suggested that Rupert Murdock - who owns the New York Post and Fox - maybe be in the process of wooing Burnett to his rival network.
Page Six was hardly subtle in branding the two financial news babes:
Some
of Burnett's fans have even labeled her "Maria 2.0," while Bartiromo has acquired another nickname, "The Bank Skank."
Not only is Burnett nine years younger than Bartiromo, she also comes with
less baggage. Last year, Bartiromo got caught up in an ethics scandal for globetrotting
on Citigroup's private jet with its then-wealth-management chief Todd Thomson,
who later got the ax.
Rivalries among sexy reporters working on the same news network are nothing new and Gambling911.com is hardly immune from this plague.
In recent months, management has worked diligently to calm rifts between its long time reporter Jenny Woo and newcomer, Sparky Collins, both of whom are entertainment reporters for the website.
Woo has her own poker profile even though she hardly plays, yet she is well known among the poker circuit. She and poker legend Johnny Chan have been shopping around a new "poker reality" series.
Jenny Woo does Costa Rica. That’s not a made-up headline, that is the actual header for an article on a gambling website. Oh, and it was written by Jenny herself. That seems to be tone of the majority of the articles she writes on the betting world, including such notables as “Hottest Athletes Wives” and so on. Jenny takes her job seriously, especially when she can have fun doing it. The site she works for, Gambling911.com, is festooned with photos of Ms. Woo apparently around the office in a bikini, which seemed to make her coworkers perfectly happy. There is also a photo of Grandmother Woo, who, according to the caption, isn’t thrilled with her granddaughter’s choice of work.
Sparky, meanwhile, arrived onto the scene this summer. With his irreverent charm and charisma, the transgender reporter who arrived in Miami via Cuba on an inner tube has won over legends of fans including sponsors who see Sparky Collins as key selling tool for the gay population.
"The gay and transgender community have plenty of disposable income," comments Gambling911.com Senior Editor, Payton O'Brien. "They also love to gamble online studies suggest."
Woo,
who sells real estate in South Florida, believes she is far more capable
of selling ad space for Gambling911.com.
"It helps that I speak English," says Woo, referring to the fact that Sparky is still a little rusty in that department.
Gambling911.com has already confirmed that both its popular reporters as well as Carrie Stroup (pictured right) are coming back aggressively as the site enters its seventh year.
"Readership feedback has been unanimously positive to all three reporters," disclosed O'Brien.
Remote reporting is already heavily in demand for the upcoming months with Gambling911.com heading to Vancouver in late August for the taping of BodogFight's new season, Barcelona for EiG and CAP Euro and Aruba for the 2007 Aruba Poker Classic.
Former Gambling911.com reporter, Destiney Bleu Lewis, will be joining the Bodog Beat it was revealed this week. Lewis will be making appearances on Gambling911.com as part of this new gig beginning next month when Bodog descends upon the island nation of Antigua, where the company recently set up shop via an acquisition. Bodog will be celebrating its Antigua landing with a festive carnival.
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Alejandro Botticelli, Gambling911.com
Originally published July 27, 2007 10:57 am ET
