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 Actor and comedian Will Ferrell reprised his "Anchorman" role for
KXMB's Saturday night news broadcast (http://bit.ly/1dIxZXs ). The
former "Saturday Night Live" star is promoting "Anchorman 2: The
Legend Continues," a sequel to the 2004 film about a fictional news
team's sexist reaction to the arrival of an ambitious female
reporter.
Dressed in his signature rust-colored three-piece suit and a striped
tie, Ferrell read stories off the teleprompter, punctuated them with
exaggerated eye blinks and engaged in witty banter with weekend
anchor Amber Schatz and the rest of the Bismarck news team.
Schatz said she has watched the original "Anchorman" about 30 times,
and the hardest part of co-anchoring the newscast with Ferrell was
holding back laughter every time he spoke in character.
"The second he said, 'Good evening, I'm Ron Burgundy,' I lost it,"
Schatz said Sunday. "It was really hard not to laugh."
He also clowned around, popping into Schatz's screen while she read
a story and telling her after a commercial break, "Amber, you look
lovely tonight" before asking her if she was married.
When Schatz told him she wasn't married, Ferrell replied, "Well I
am, so don't get any ideas."
The online video of the 30-minute newscast, which is making the
rounds on social media, is part of a widespread marketing campaign
for the movie sequel that has included Dodge Durango commercials, a
new Ben & Jerry's ice cream flavor named "Scotchy Scotch Scotch,"
and Burgundy's own exhibit at the Newseum in Washington, D.C.
On Sunday, Ferrell headed to Winnipeg, where he was slated to help
cover Canada's Olympic curling trials for broadcaster TSN.
KXMB is one of two CBS-affiliated television stations serving
central and western North Dakota. The Bismarck station shares
programming with Minot's KXMC, but the two stations produce separate
newscasts.
Sales manager Tammy Blumhagen said Ferrell's agent contacted the
station in May and asked if he could anchor or co-anchor a newscast
as part of the promotion tour for "Anchorman 2." She's not sure why
KXMB was selected.
"When they called us, we kind of jumped at the opportunity," she
said.
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 No money changed hands, Blumhagen said, and both the
movie and television station are garnering significant publicity
from the numerous shares on Facebook and Twitter.
Station managers did want some assurances that the stunt wouldn't go
too far, and Blumhagen said Ferrell was on board with maintaining
the integrity of the newscast.
Schatz, who typically anchors the weekend newscasts alone, said she
didn't learn that she'd share the dais until Wednesday. It was a
complete surprise to viewers.
During Saturday evening's newscast, Ferrell occasionally strayed
from the script.
While extolling the tale of firefighters extinguishing a trash fire
in a Sam's Club parking lot, Ferrell seemed impressed that crews
used 500 gallons of water and foam to put out the blaze: "I repeat,
500 gallons."
He also drew laughs from Schatz when he
mispronounced s'mores as "sah-mores," overdramatized his tease of
the "Dakota Storm Center," and noted after the sports segment, "I've
never seen fighting in a hockey match before. That was fascinating."
Schatz, a 31-year-old North Dakota native who has worked in small
markets for eight years, said the whole experience was surreal. If
she could choose how to spend her 15 minutes of fame, "I would
choose this exact thing."
The news team expected Ferrell to end with his "Stay classy"
catchphrase, but he missed the cue, saying: "What? Am I supposed to
read that?"
The crew got to hear him say "Stay classy, Bismarck," during the
credits, but his microphone had already been cut off.
"He did say it, it just didn't air," Schatz said.
[Associated
Press; DIRK LAMMERS]
Follow Dirk Lammers on
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