Sitting atop a brown leather banquette at Flatiron sports bar Bounce and wearing space-age chic Giuseppe Zanotti silver wedge sneakers, Michelle Beadle jokingly contorts her body into unladylike poses that would draw the ire of any schoolmarm.
“I really should learn to be more of a girl,” she says before breaking into a hearty laugh.
The self-proclaimed tomboy straightens up, pushes a stray blond hair from her blue eyes and flashes that girl-next-door smile. Such charms, in addition to her biting wit, earned her “It” girl status at ESPN, where she co-hosted pop-culture show “SportsNation” until her contract ended last spring.
PHOTOS: MICHELLE BEADLE MODELS SPORTY STYLES
In May, Beadle signed a deal with NBC that has catapulted her out of the lad genre and into the mainstream. She covered the Olympics and the NFL Kickoff for the peacock and is currently a correspondent for “Access Hollywood.” Early next year, the Texas native is set to get a show of her own on the NBC Sports Network.
“I didn’t just want to sign up for one show,” says the 37-year-old who lives on the Upper West Side with her pug, Leroy Jenkins. “I wanted to make it clear that I’m willing and able to do as much as possible — daytime, late-night, whatever — down the road.”
Beadle played volleyball and basketball and ran track growing up but stopped before high school. “Eventually your boobs grow and you can’t run anymore, and that was a really rude awakening,” she recalls. “I was like, ‘I’m not as fast as I was yesterday.’ ”
Her love of sports, however, never waned. In her mid-20s, she scored a gig with the San Antonio Spurs’ marketing department only to learn, after being asked to film a segment, that she was pretty good in front of a camera. She became a local TV personality and went on to host shows on the Travel Channel before getting a job with CBS covering college sports. The gig required a move to the Big Apple.
“When I got off the plane, I was like, ‘This is it. I don’t ever plan on leaving,’ ” she says. But after a few years and a jump to the YES Network, she left for a three-year stint in Connecticut at ESPN.
The end of the popular host’s contract coincided with the culmination of that of the network’s other popular blonde, Erin Andrews — and the sports blogs and gossip sites pitted the two against each other, throwing gasoline on their so-called rivalry.
“We couldn’t be more different,” she says, shaking her head at the mention of Andrews, who has since landed at Fox Sports. “It cracks me up that people continue to [compare us] … we’re finally in two different worlds where hopefully we’re done with that.”
An upbeat Beadle is relishing her new role, especially on “Access Hollywood.” “As much as we think we’re smart and intelligent and evolved, we’re always talking about what that idiot Kim Kardashian did. It’s a shameful thing, but I like it,” says Beadle, who has brought her candid, sarcastic edge to the program. “If some idiot with lip gloss is telling me how awesome Lindsay Lohan is, I’m like, ‘No, Lindsay is not awesome.’ ”
When she’s not working, Beadle decompresses in her pad, where she has converted a bedroom into a Carrie Bradshaw dream closet. “It used to be where if you were a woman in sports, God forbid that you care about shoes [and want to be taken seriously],” she says. “I was like, ‘Well, I like all of it.’ ”
The single gal also likes small dinners with friends at Bar Boulud, margaritas at Rosa Mexicano and any place without a velvet rope.“I’m not waiting in line for anything … unless Clooney’s naked in an aquarium. And even then, I’m like ‘Meh, how long’s the wait?’ ” she deadpans.
All jokes aside, the sassy TV personality says she’ll display a bit more gravitas on the NBC Sports Network than she did on ESPN. “I came from a show where I dressed up as a pirate and a mackerel swallowed me once. My show will hopefully have some of that fun, but it’s a role that’s more serious.”
