As a TV journalist, Donna Hanover has done some pretty brave things: She has skated with the New York Rangers. She has kicked up her heels with the Radio City Rockettes. She has even stood, unflinching, before a New York nightclub crowd and delivered jokes. But taking on the role of Ruth Carter Stapleton, the evangelizing sister of former president Jimmy Carter, in the movie The People vs. Larry Flynt was an altogether different experience. "I was definitely scared," she says.
Hanover, who has a BA in political science from Stanford and a master's in journalism from Columbia, has worked as a reporter and news anchor at stations in Columbus, Ohio, Utica, N.Y., Pittsburgh and Miami for more than 20 years. Currently she is a correspondent for Fox TV's Good Day, New York and an anchor for In Food Today, a cable cooking show. She had played bit parts as television anchors and news reporters in a handful of movies and TV shows, but never had a substantial role until Flynt director and acquaintance Milos Forman offered her the part of Stapleton.
Hanover's performance has received high praise. New York Times columnist Frank Rich wrote that Hanover handled the part "brilliantly." But the film is controversial. Critics have accused Forman of glossing over the depraved content of Hustler magazine while glorifying Flynt.
"I think that's a misreading of the movie," Hanover says. "This is a love song to the First Amendment. When you come away from it, you don't want to be Larry Flynt and you don't want to know him. He is not a hero at all."
Hanover hopes other movie parts come her way. But she already has more roles than most people could handle. In addition to being a TV anchor, news correspondent and budding film actress, she is wife of the mayor of New York City, Rudolph Giuliani, and mother to their two children, Andrew, 10, and Caroline, 7. (They met during an interview 15 years ago when she was an anchor at the NBC affiliate in Miami and he was a top official in the federal Department of Justice.) "I'm very content with a multifaceted career," she says. "Being a part of a movie like this has made my life very interesting, but I'm definitely not giving up my day job."
