Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Courteney Cox Arquette, Demi Moore, Doris Burke, Erin Andrews, ESPN, Hannah Storm, Holden Caulfield, Jackie MacMullan, Jenn Sterger, Lisa Dergan, Lisa Guerrero, Lisa Rinna, Tony Kornheiser
Remember when PTI’s Tony Kornheiser called out Hannah Storm in February for her “horrifying, horrifying outfit”?
Actually, Kornheiser’s exact words were:
“She’s got on red go-go boots and a Catholic school plaid skirt way too short for somebody in her 40s or maybe early 50s by now. And she’s got on her typically very, very tight shirt so she looks like she’s got sausage casing wrapped around her upper body.”
“She’s what I would call a Holden Caulfield fantasy.”
Holden Caulfield is the protagonist in J.D. Salinger’s masterpiece The Catcher in the Rye. Caulfield gets expelled from Pencey, his prep school, and then hires a prostitute while staying in a New York hotel.
Needless to say, being called a Holden Caulfield fantasy is not a compliment.
ESPN subsequently slapped Kornheiser with a two-week suspension for his comments and forced him to publicly apologize.
One would think that after the humiliation Hannah sustained by being embarrassed on national television, she would tone down her outfits and dress more conservatively.
Clearly that is not so. The 47-year-old (48 on June 13) continues to flaunt her cougar wiles with scandalous outfits on The Worldwide Leader’s network.
Note the first picture above. A skin-tight blue minidress that displays 85% leg. Hannah was doing a post-game interview with Ron Artest after the Lakers defeated the Celtics in Game 1 of the NBA Finals.
While I applaud older women who keep themselves in shape and enjoy showing off their hard work, namely Demi Moore, Lisa Rinna, and Courteney Cox Arquette, Hannah Storm is not in that category.
Sorry, Hannah, you are not a Hollywood actress. You are, in fact, a sportscaster. Your job is to interview athletes and report on sports news in a male-dominated field where women are already disrespected for their “inferior” knowledge of sports and “inability” to grasp athletic concepts.
For a “trailblazing and award-winning sportscaster and newscaster” (taken from ESPN’s bio) who has been ingrained in the field for the last 25 years, you have nothing to prove. Why do you continue to put yourself under scrutiny?
There are plenty of successful women in sports reporting who are respected for their excellent work and professionalism. Doris Burke and Jackie MacMullan are intelligent, highly competent women who know their subject matter very well and offer expert analysis.
The biggest name in sports reporting today is Erin Andrews. When is the last time Erin appeared on camera for ESPN wearing anything resembling Hannah’s outfit? Note: I said for ESPN, not ABC’s DWTS.
The problem with wearing barely-there dresses is that we cease to pay attention to what one is saying and begin paying attention to what one is exposing.
Point being, Hannah Storm isn’t some hot 26-year-old state school graduate who became famous for wearing a cowboy hat and having breast implants (ahem, Jenn Sterger). Sterger, by the way, got handed a column in Sports Illustrated, then got hired to be the “Gameday Host” for the New York Jets, and now co-hosts The Daily Line on Versus.
Storm is a Notre Dame graduate and a great sportscaster who has proven her worth many times over. Sure, we love our Lisa Dergans and Lisa Guerreros. However, listening to (and watching) an attractive female who actually has something insightful to say and breaks stereotypical barriers while doing it is not only refreshing, but also groundbreaking.
Hannah Storm doesn’t need to compete with fake boobs and girls in their early 20s. She has a quarter-century of experience and credibility behind her. And yes, even at 47, she’s still attractive.
But please, before all of that respect trickles away, put on some clothes, Hannah. No one admires a half-clothed sports reporter for her brain.
17 Comments so far
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Susan Shan On Sports 24/7 
It’s sad that when it comes to women in the Sports arena, their appearance still is a topic worth discussing. Has anyone ever critiqued any males in the same line of work in this way? Unfortunately, networks at times hire with this in mind. Lisa Guerrero is a perfect example of this. Perhaps I’m in the minority, but if you can do the job, I really don’t care what you look like.
Comment by Scott June 4, 2010 @ 8:10 amUnfortunately, I think you are in the minority. Part of Erin Andrews’s appeal is her physical beauty. Jenn Sterger’s entire career was made from crowd shots at an FSU football game. That’s reality. But good for you for not letting looks affect your opinion of quality.
Comment by Susan Shan June 4, 2010 @ 11:35 pmSusan – VERY well said. I wonder what she has to say on the matter – whether she has a stylist & pressure to dress this way. Either way, her clothes don’t do her brain justice.
Comment by Nicole June 4, 2010 @ 10:27 amNo other female ESPN sportscaster dresses the way she does. The rest dress appropriately (Sage Steele, Linda Cohn, Suzy Kolber, etc.).
Comment by Susan Shan June 4, 2010 @ 11:19 pmI was in complete shock myself. I thought we would see a slow gradual unrecognizable trend where she toned it down some, not take it up a notch like that. I would love to hear Tony talk off the record about this, like at a bar watching it with him.
You are so right about her having nothing to prove. I love cougars like anyone else, but for some reason her sexiness seems more of a ploy than who she really is which doesn’t sit well with me when hunting cougars.
Here’s a link with her bundled up from 15 years ago on NBC http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JxS4qoDT0A
Nice work, all great points!
Comment by micah June 4, 2010 @ 2:49 pmThanks for reading, Micah.
The thing is, you can still be sexy in a suit. Hannah is an attractive woman. Wearing a suit would show off her attractiveness in a manner that wouldn’t detract from her professionalism.
And would definitely love to hear what Kornheiser has to say about this!
Comment by Susan Shan June 4, 2010 @ 11:49 pmIn this case, Kornheiser was professing what most people were probably thinking. And like many public figures who speak their mind, they are often antagonized and forced to make public apologies even though they are stating the truth. The only things that public apologies ever show are an admittance to a mistake and a plead for forgiveness. That’s all Storm is seeing–an admittance that Tony was wrong. I don’t think Storm is trying to prove anything except “I am not going to change just because of what a stupid, impulsive, & chauvinistic douchebag said.” Because if she does change, Kornheiser wins.
Bottom line?
1) Like most successful outspoken people these days (such as Howard Stern and the creators of South Park), Kornheiser should have stood to his convictions and said “F*ck you” to his management.
2) How often do you see situations where a guy is not paying attention to ANYTHING you say because he’s looking at your body and fantasizing about plowing you? Want to be taken seriously? Put some fuckin’ clothes on, Storm.
Great article, Susan. You touched on a touchy subject for me.
Comment by Hamilton June 4, 2010 @ 4:38 pmTwo heads peep game right now: NBA’s Craig Sager and NHL’s Barry Melrose.
Just because you know how to tie a half windsor (or full windsor knot if you a big boy); doesn’t mean you can come onto my TV in threads that make my eyes hurt. Oh and fellas: none of us WHO WEAR SUITS FOR A LIVING ever rock pocket squares.
Ya’ll need to donate your closets to the circus or to Sasha Baron Cohen for the Borat sequel. Start at Brooks Brothers and end at Zegna. Take a card out of Jay Wright’s rolodex.
Wish I had half the dough-dough these dudes drop on bad clothes.
Holla!
Comment by Tim June 4, 2010 @ 11:16 pmWho wrote this article? Some dike named Susan Shan? What are you??.. a lesbian?? I guess if you are you have every right to cast your opinion of Hannah if so. Hannah Storm is freakin’ HOT! She always was and still is at this age in her life! I immediately FB’d that thought and received dozens of positive responses from my friends who seen her in both interviews. They agreed she was sexy & beautiful and still had it. Nothing she wore or said was bad taste. Your list of other beautiful women is by no means an official gold standard to say whether a woman is “of not that category?!” You just love putting her or anyone in a well-defined confined box of what they should be without allowing them to cross “your” very fine definition of the way they should dress and act in “YOUR” world. So what if she dresses provocative at times?? .. It’s more I can appreciate but she has also dressed conservatively over the years. Look at yourself? I’m glad you’re not reporting the sports news compared to Hot Hannah.. you look like you got stung by a bee or ate some something to make you go into anaphylactic shock! … time to get back to some real news instead of some idiot that sent me this time-wasting article.
Comment by Jazz June 5, 2010 @ 1:10 amI thought the plaid skirt stood out because it looked awful, I saw nothing wrong with the blue dress. Nothing wrong with being sexy.
Comment by Rob June 5, 2010 @ 11:26 amHannah has always been hot and I saw absolutely nothing wrong with her wardrobe choice. At all. She looked great, handled herself really well and makes me wanna watch her all the time now. There is nothing wrong with her outfit of choice, at all. I agree with Rob that the plaid skirt was just ugly and that is why it stood out. Kornheiser is paid to give outrageous opinions on sports, NOT other employees ON THE AIR, particularly calling her a hooker by proxy. So calling Hannah out is just ludicrous. She is not impinging on her success, at all, either. She is a smart, sexy, vibrant woman and she should not get hell from those of us who have no right to judge her, particularly on something like her appearance.
Comment by Philip June 6, 2010 @ 3:58 amMoar NASCAR blogs plz. kthxbai
Comment by Rob June 6, 2010 @ 5:01 pma fashion faux pas, but women should wear what they want to. people respect her for being a great sportscaster, so at the end of the day… does it really matter what she wears?
Comment by Kim June 6, 2010 @ 7:14 pmHannah’s silver spoon got her into sports. Nothing more or less. There are more deserving more articulate people, whom earned their potential time to step into ESPN than her.
Comment by Scott June 8, 2010 @ 6:49 pmYeah, the plaid skirt was MAYBE a little much and I can see how co-workers (like Kornheuser) might find HER a little much. But for her age (and this coming from someone who’s even older), I personally find her scorching hot. And I think the package she presents FOR ESPN is more intended BY ESPN to be for ESPN watcher like me than colleagues like Kornheuser or yourself. Call me crazy, but Hannah Storm is a not so subtle marketing strategy … and actually I am not one but scandalized, insulted or anything otherwise by that.
Comment by Brian G January 13, 2011 @ 7:53 amAnd that little blue number she’s wearing … you’d probably look very fetching (and let’s just call a spade a spade and add “marketable”) in that as well now, wouldn’t you?
hannah storen is soo hot i love her don’t talk about my baby girl
Comment by Jay June 9, 2011 @ 5:30 pmWhat?! U have to be a hollywood actress to be hot as an older woman? Wtf you are seriously hating and jealous of hannah storm. She is so sexy and its not only her physical looks. Her confidence charisma wit and intelligence all add to her mystique. Quit hatin
Comment by Rick December 2, 2012 @ 12:29 am