Revealed with Jules Asner (2001)

Overview

Revealed...with Jules Asner is a biography-style television show that first aired on E! Entertainment Television from 2001-2003. The host, Jules Asner, was a rising star among the network's stable of on-air personalities, and programmers at the cable channel decided she was the right person to begin hosting the existing series Celebrity Profile which had premiered in 1997. The name change also meant a slight change in format; while Celebrity Profile had been strictly a biographical show voiced by an unseen narrator -- and without a fresh interview of the star featured -- each episode of Revealed featured a new, one-on-one interview of the profile conducted by Asner herself. The first three shows in the series profiled Julia Roberts, George Clooney, and Matt Damon. Each had agreed to participate because of a quid pro quo: Oceans Eleven, their film being released at the time, was directed by Asner's then-boyfriend, Steven Soderbergh. While Asner conducted the "main" interview for each episode, staff producers and associate producers interviewed everyone else whose sound bites turned up in episodes -- co-stars, family, friends, industry insiders, etc. Asner and E! parted company under some unhappy circumstances -- she moved to New York and wed the director, even as network executives were unhappy with the series' declining ratings and Asner's increasing petulance -- especially regarding her unwillingness to ask anything more than softball questions during interviews for her show.