Shallon Lester, star of MTV’s newest reality show "Downtown Girls," is an author and contributor to Glamour.com.
Lester was a former Daily News gossip reporter for the paper’s Rush & Molloy column.
And, according to Lester, MTV discovered her while passing Rush & Molloy’s reality show pitch.
Here’s the inside-media backstory, via an interview with the Frisky:
So, news reports two years ago said you were working on a reality show, but it didn’t pan out. Is this the same show you were working on?
Two and a half years ago I was working at The Daily News [as a gossip reporter] and my bosses there, Rush & Malloy, they approached the producers about a reality show about the gossip industry. The production company passed on that, but interviewed me as part of the process. They were, like, ‘Oh, we’d rather develop a show about Shallon,’ and so we sold it to MTV.
In 2006, Bravo did air a short-lived show about the Daily News called "Tabloid Wars" — which focused on young gossip Hud Morgan instead of the veteran Rush & Molloy.
I’m guessing "Downtown Girls" will last more than six episodes.
Here’s the trailer:
