Lara Logan Gets It Done

Lara Logan - Chic in the DesertWhen I look in the mirror and see the tired circles under my eyes, I don't blame my busy social life nor voracious creativity. No, I blame Lara Logan. Lara Logan, Chief Foreign Correspondent for CBS - or, the chicest most beautiful thing to ever be photographed repeatedly (and almost exclusively) in kevlar.

I stay up late to watch the news, and invariably Lara Logan files a daily story detailing the atrocities of this stupid war direct from Iraq. I don't want to get up on my soapbox and expiate about politics and war, nor do I intend to make light of the situation, but I would like to give kudos to the woman who gracefully brings it to my life each evening. Of course, life would be better if I didn't have to watch these stories, but let's just look at how she does it...

Embedded with the troops, donning a veil at times, a pith helmet, and always a bullet-proof vest, Ms. Logan seems perfectly insouciant in situations that would fill the normal girl with utter terror. She's elegant and eloquent at all times, and completely at ease in a Blackhawk or Hum-Vee, with burly smelly sweaty men in fatigues everywhere. She foregoes her personal comfort for the story, and still maintains an incredible degree of style and decorum. She has certainly earned her stripes in the Middle East and the rest of the world - following the Green Berets through Afghanistan, floods in Mozambique, embassy bombings in Nairobi...she's seen it all, and at a far younger age than most reporters at her level.

Ms. Logan commutes in Apaches...AND she looks utterly amazing. The other night I saw just a wisp of her golden hair fluttering out from underneath a shiny black helmet, as she interviewed an Iraqi in front of his bombed-out home.  Her beauty is subjugated by the circumstances, but it's definitely there, and if I may be so bold as to say it - it's probably why some of her interviewees are so at ease talking with her. After everything they've seen it is most likely a relief to see a confident, charismatic woman doing what she can to report the proceedings.

She's forthright,  cosmopolitan (that accent - English? Dutch? South African? Australian?), and entirely devoid of condescension. She's also well-groomed and lovely - somehow the desert dust never touches her. Her hair looks blown-out, her shirts are crisp, and her minimal makeup is flawless. She reminds me of my other favorite reporter, Diane Sawyer, whose equal elegance and good looks allowed her entree among world leaders, corporate big-wigs, celebrities - and a marriage to Mike Nichols...

So, I for one would like to salute CBS's Chief Foreign Correspondent, Lara Logan. In the tradition of men in Burberry trenches, Ms. Logan is a true lady.  

Comments

[maura]

I think that mad props can also be given to CNN's Christiane Amanpour, who is also always very chic under fire (literally).

And please don't forget Maria Bartiromo who broadcasts from the pits of the NYSE for MSNBC with elan -- elbowing traders and shouting above the roar, and yet still stylish and cool. Not bad for a girl from Brooklyn. Joey Ramone apparently loved her so much that he even wrote a SONG about her on his last posthumous album. Awesome!


Sample lyrics:

What's happening on Wall Street?
What's happening at The Stock Exchange?
I want to know

I watch her at the big board every single day
While she's reporting, you best stay out of her way
I watch her everyday
I watch her every night
She's really outta sight

Maria Bartiromo (3x)