Ask American Profile

Brian Williams, Mayim Bialik, Lara Spencer, Lonestar

I would like to know about Brian Williams of NBC News.
—M.G. L., Ohio

Brian Williams, who replaced Tom Brokaw as the anchor of NBC Nightly News in December 2004, grew up in Elmira, N.Y. (30,940), and Middletown, N.J. Despite his good looks and quick, intellectual wit, he’s a regular guy—a NASCAR fan and former New Jersey volunteer firefighter. He’s even part owner of a dirt-track stock car team. After attending George Washington University and the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., Williams worked for KOAM in Pittsburg, Kan. (pop. 19,243), before stints at TV stations in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and New York. He joined NBC in 1994 and has won three Emmys. The father of two with wife Jane Stoddard Williams, Williams is in awe of the man he succeeded. "The first time I saw Tom Brokaw up close was in the early ’80s when I was a young reporter covering the presidential debates," he has written. "It was like a celebrity sighting. I even phoned my parents."

Whatever became of that young lady that played Blossom in the half-hour sitcom of the same name?
—Richard F., Montana

Mayim Bialik, who was born in San Diego and raised in Los Angeles, had a hard time convincing her parents that she wanted to be an actress, but after they gave in, Bialik nabbed a role in the 1988 film Beaches. By age 16, she was starring in her own TV show Blossom. "It was a great experience," says Bialik, 29. "Mostly, I remember the relationships I established with the people I worked with. It was a real family unit that functioned very well for five years." When the show ended in 1995, Bialik headed for UCLA, where she got a degree in neuroscience and Hebrew and Jewish studies, met her husband Michael Stone in math class, and is completing her doctorate in neuroscience. Still, she hopes to get back into acting full time. "Life is about the journey and not the destination," says Bialik, who most recently appeared in a few episodes of the TV show Fat Actress, an independent film called Kalamazoo and an episode of HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm.

What can you tell me about Lara Spencer of The Insider and The Antiques Roadshow?
—Lucille M., Indiana

Lara Spencer gave birth to her second child, a daughter, last October. She lives in Connecticut with her husband David Haffenreffer, host of CNN’s Money Morning. Spencer began her broadcasting career at WDEF-TV in Chattanooga, Tenn., before moving to News 12 in Long Island, N.Y. She’s appeared on Good Morning America and is the New York anchor of The Insider, a syndicated celebrity news magazine. Spencer, herself an antiques collector and flea market fiend, will be leaving Antiques Roadshow at the end of the current season. Her replacement will be Mark Walberg, former host of Temptation Island.

Lonestar Sings the Praises of Small Towns

The members of country group Lonestar, who have sold 10 million albums, know of what they sing, especially when it comes to life in a small town. Nowhere is that more evident than on their just-released eighth album, Coming Home. Lead singer Richie McDonald, 43, a resident of Carthage, Tenn. (pop. 2,251), is quick to note that the song Little Town hits home—literally. "It’s totally about down-to-earth, simple things in life, real people, real places," he says. "I’m from a small town, I live in a little town, and we’re raising our kids in a little town. This is the life that me and my family live."

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