C.J.: Local Fox phenom hits the big time

The big leagues have called up Hayley Herst, Fox 9's executive producer for morning news shows.

Herst is leaving the Twin Cities to shape up Fox's Los Angeles morning news shows. That six-hour block includes "Good Day LA," a morning show pioneer. She was handling five-and-a-half hours of programming here.

"This is an exciting opportunity for me," Herst said Wednesday. "It has been my dream to work in Los Angeles news, and to stay in the Fox family is amazing! I absolutely love KMSP and am grateful to news director Bill Dallman for the opportunity. I will miss Minneapolis but am looking forward to getting back to the West Coast and closer to my hometown, Las Vegas."

When I told Dallman how sad this makes me, he said: "Tell me about it. I've been going through grief counseling all week."

Dallman has hired Herst twice. First at KDVR-TV in Denver in 2001 and again in 2010 when he brought her to the Twin Cities.

I just adore her even though she's always two steps ahead of me with celebrity gossip.

Herst can be painfully direct (very un-Minnesotan) and truly enjoys pushing the envelope. As Captain Obvious would say: We got along extremely well. And yes, Herst has chewed me out a couple of times.

If I know what's good for me, I also won't repeat a remark she made to her almost-constant after-work buddy, Fox 9 "Buzz" anchor Jason Matheson, when he was having trouble entertaining himself following a recent romantic breakup. He should now be busy dividing his time between being inconsolable that Herst is leaving and planning a massive blow-out goodbye party for her.

I'll say good luck, although Herst will not need it.

Signatures for hireA peek into the world of local professional autograph seekers, courtesy of Fancy Ray.

The self-proclaimed "Best-Looking Man in Comedy" was boring me with another story about an encounter with one of his million fans. I thought: Isn't this something he should tweet? But as he talked on, I saw value in his story.

"I'm walking down the street near Lake and Lyndale, and this guy starts honking and waving his arms like crazy. He's like, Come over here," said Fancy Ray. He hesitated, then decided to comply. "I go over and I'm trying to be cool and he tells me he's a big, big fan and he knew some day he'd run into me. He's got some pictures of me he wants me to sign. I'm like, 'Where'd you get these?' He went on the Internet and found photos of me he liked and had them made into photographs."

Here I was being impressed by the files of these professional autograph hounds, who appear to attend as many celebrity events as I do, and now I find out they are possibly just printing photos, as necessary.

'Hot Hoagie' tries again"America would probably remember me as the 28-year-old virgin," said Minnesota's Ryan Hoag, introducing himself to viewers of ABC's "Bachelor Pad" Monday. "Now, I'm the 32-year-old virgin." Back when he was 28, the Hot Hoagie was on "The Bachelorette," where he didn't last long. Now this innocent is on the show that needs to be renamed "Bachelor Rehab." It's a second chance for those rejected in previous seasons of "The Bachelor" and "The Bachelorette" to find love and/or assuage their heartache by bed hopping. "Bachelor Cesspool" would be an even better name.

According to the official "Bachelor Pad" bio of our non-drinking, high school dean and former NFLer, Hoag isn't looking for love on this show. He's looking for dough. But the bio is apparently incomplete. "The reason I'm on this show is to win $250,000, but don't get me wrong. I am so ready to find love," Hoag said.

He said it so convincingly, and yet my gut is not buying it. But Hoag has given me an idea!

Why not a VIRGINS-ONLY installment of "Bachelor" or "Bachelorette"?

While I can't believe how much of the Emily story I monitored and I'm just crazy about Hoag, I doubt I'll be watching this "Bachelor Pad," with toads aplenty and very few lilies.