Ashleigh Banfield Predicted to “Shine” in ’09

The NYPost has chosen truTV anchor Ashleigh Banfield as part of its “Five faces with something to look forward to” list.

Ashleigh Banfield was supposed to be the new (bespectacled) face of NBC way back in 2000 when – pretty much overnight – she went from afternoon anchor on MSNBC to the hottest pistol in TV news.

But it all fell apart as quickly as it had come together for her. There were reports she was difficult to work with and sulky.

She wandered in the desert (like Luke Skywalker) for a few years, married, had a couple of kids.

This year, the former MSNBC anchor is back on cable – where she started. Banfield kept the glasses and found new confidence. She joined TruTV (the old Court TV) as the only anchor without a law background – reinventing herself as a legal eagle.

Banfield is the only tvnewser on the list. Others include “Oprah’s health nut”, Dr. Mehmet Oz and new American Idol judge Kara DioGuardi.

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