posted on October 20, 2008 11:24:27 PM new
The Associated Press
Monday, Oct. 20, 2008
By CHUCK BARTELS - 1 hour ago
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - A popular local TV anchorwoman who had a small
part in the Bush biopic "W" was in critical condition Monday after being
beaten in her home. Police questioned whether she could have been
targeted.
KATV anchor Anne Pressly, 26, was found about 4:30 a.m. Monday - a
half-hour before she was due to appear on the station's "Daybreak"
program. Pressly's mother went to the anchorwoman's house when she
didn't answer a wake-up call, Little Rock police spokeswoman Cassandra
Davis said.
Asked whether Pressly may have been targeted because of her job, Davis
said officers were talking to station employees to determine whether she
"has had any problems." Davis would not discuss specifics.
"(It) is possible that it is something other than robbery," Davis said.
"Our detectives are talking with co-workers because she was a public
figure, because she was on the news, in the media."
In a statement, KATV president and general manager Dale Nicholson said
the anchor "is a person who simply lights up the room, by just walking
in.
"The KATV family is having to deal with a personal crisis in our lives
with the senseless brutality last night to one of our Daybreak anchors,
Anne Pressly," Nicholson said. "I know her viewers will join her family
as well as the KATV family in praying for a speedy recovery for Anne,
who means so much to all of our staff."
Pressly was found unresponsive in her bed and a police report said she
was bleeding from her head. Davis said Pressly was in critical condition
at a hospital.
Davis said Pressly was stabbed, but KATV cited investigators later in
reporting that all of her injuries were from being beaten in the head
and upper body.
Pressly appeared briefly in Oliver Stone's new movie about President
Bush that opened over the weekend.
She portrays a conservative commentator who speaks favorably of
President Bush's "Mission Accomplished" event on an aircraft carrier
shortly after the start of the Iraq war. She won the role after being
noticed by the casting director when she went to Shreveport, La., where
the movie was filmed, to work on a story about it and the city's film
industry.
Spokeswoman Kate Hubin for the film company Lionsgate confirmed
Pressly's role but declined to comment further.
KATV's Web site notes that Pressly's most notable interview was with
Vice President Dick Cheney. Traveling through an Arkansas town, she
found the highway blocked in front of a hunting goods store because
Cheney was inside. Pressly asked for an interview, which she conducted
on the ammunition aisle.
Early Monday afternoon, a man answering a phone number for Pressly's
mother, Patricia Cannady, said the family had no comment.
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