‘I lost my virginity to Ann Curry’

TVNewser headed out last night to the annual NLGJA “Headlines & Headliners” fundraiser hosted by MSNBC anchor Thomas Roberts. More than 400 attendees packed the Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams store in Soho for the event.

The primetime outing pulled in the morning show anchors including NBC’s Ann Curry, CBS’s Erica Hill and Marysol Castro, ABC’s Sam Champion and MSNBC’s Chris Jansing. We caught up with NBC’s Natalie Morales and Chris Wragge as they swapped stories about their early morning wake-up calls.

We chatted with ABC’s Andrea Canning, about getting the first of the Charlie Sheen interviews, and about her competitor and friend, NBC’s Jeff Rossen who got the second, and third and fourth. Canning told us even as the story has died down, she’s still getting press requests to talk about it.

FNC’s Jamie Colby, who anchors weekends for Fox, told us about her news-filled Saturdays of late — Libya last weekend, Japan the weekend before. “And the Gabrielle Giffords shooting happened on our watch.”

Curry shared with us her experience in Japan last week, which turned dangerous for those covering the story as the threat from the Fukushima nuclear plant grew. “I’ve taken our crews

to some pretty dangerous places,” said Curry. “And I am responsible for what happens to them… I don’t take this lightly.”

A lighter moment came earlier when the host sponsor of the event, furniture designer Mitchell Gold (right) declared, “I lost my virginity to Ann Curry.” He was talking about the first national TV appearance which was with Curry on “Today.” But Gold’s line led about 10 other men — at this gathering of gay journalists — to declare it too.

We chatted with FNC’s Rick Folbaum and Rick Reichmuth, HLN’s Jane Velez Mitchell, MSNBC’s Contessa Brewer, CNBC’s Melissa Francis, and NBC News exec Alex Wallace. We spotted Erica Hill and Thomas Roberts, who anchored together years ago at Headline News, catching up.

The event raised more than $75,000 benefiting NLGJA’s scholarship and newsroom outreach programs.

(Photos courtesy NLGJA/Michael Williams)