When "Entertainment Tonight" first came on TV, serious people derided it as a video version of "People" magazine, shallow and trite and fluffy. "ET" and "A Current Affair" would reduce the American mind to thin dumb mush, and the culture would spiral down until everything was seen through the lens of tabloid values. But stick around long enough, and you're a cultural icon:

The reason she's leaving? Hollywood Reporter notes:

So either she took the cut because she knew she was going, or going because she took the cut? It's difficult to get used to showing up on the set every day for $2.5 mil; after taxes and expenses, it's hardly worth it.

By the way, this newspaper used to have a beloved food writer named Mary Hart. Here she is with Art Linkletter; the caption says he is admiring her pigs in a blanket, but she doesn't seem happy with them at all.