Maria Shriver Falls Back Into Reporter's Role

By Nikki Schwab, Washington Whispers

She said she was done and would not return to the media. But that didn't stop California's first lady and former NBC journo Maria Shriver from dipping her toes back in recently when it involved a topic she cared intimately about. Shriver produced a new HBO documentary series, The Alzheimer's Project, which includes four longer films and 15 short ones detailing different aspects of the disease. She also appears in one, Grandpa, Do You Know Who I Am? based on a book she wrote several years ago. For Shriver, Alzheimer's is personal. Her dad, Sargent Shriver, is suffering from the disease.

This morning she met with reporters to debut the films, giving a special nod to former NBC colleagues David Gregory and Norah O'Donnell , who popped by the breakfast to show their support. And even though she swore off television journalism after seeing the media circus surrounding the death of Anna Nicole Smith, it seems her reporting instincts are intact. "As an executive producer, I went out often with [Producer John Hoffman] trying to interview the people, and he would tell me, 'No,' " she said. "I would have to stand aside, that I'm the executive producer, not a reporter, and they didn't want me to be a reporter—so that was a whole new learning experience as well."

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