NBC4’s Tara Wallis-Finestone took home the prestigious “Entertainment Journalist of the Year” Award at The Los Angeles Press Club’s 4th Annual National Entertainment Awards. The event took place at the Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles on Thursday, November 17th.
According to the Los Angeles Press Club judges, Wallis-Finestone received the “Entertainment Journalist of the Year” award because she organizes and writes unique and compelling stories for NBC4 in a fast-moving and highly visual manner. She is a gifted story-teller who writes for the eye.
“Tara is a very versatile member of our news organization, who is comfortable producing a wide variety of stories. We are proud of her accomplishments and congratulate her on receiving this terrific honor,” said Vickie Burns, NBC4 Vice President and News Director.
Wallis-Finestone was one of two members of the media to receive the “Entertainment Journalist Of The Year Award.” She was feted with the honor for her body of work (2011 and part of 2010), including the segments “Rock ‘n Roll Treasure” and “Forgotten Footprints,” which had both broadcast and on-line components. Tara was the writer and producer on these stories and Chuck Henry served as reporter.
Additionally, Wallis-Finestone wrote “Courtney Love Assembles a Twitter Army,” an article she authored exclusively for the station’s website NBCLA.com. The article documented Love’s appeal to her Twitter followers to help her with her legal troubles. The piece viralled and garnered national attention.
The multi-part “Rock ‘n Roll Treasure” looked at a Southern California woman’s treasure-trove of never-before-seen photos and memorabilia of iconic rock bands. Perhaps the rarest set of photos owned by the woman are two Polaroids of Paul McCartney playing piano inside Lennon’s beach house in 1974. It was their first meeting since the Beatles breakup in 1970.
A piece of Hollywood History was discovered in “Forgotten Footprints” when Henry stumbled onto the original footprints from the Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in an airport hangar located just East of Los Angeles. Wallis-Finestone jumped on the story and traced the journey of the historical “Forgotten Footprints.” The footprints were of Douglass Fairbanks, Mary Pickford and Norma Talmadge, who, at the time, accidentally stepped in wet cement when the theater was still under construction, launching a long-standing tradition.
The winners of the 4th Annual National Entertainment Awards were selected from submissions from media outlets from around the country. For a complete list of winners, visit http://lapressclub.org/
