Broadcast News (1987) William Hurt Eng

At the Washington DC bureau of a national network news division, Jane Craig is a news producer who knows that she is always right. Beneath her veneer of self-assuredness, Jane is a bundle of neuroses also knowing that she has troubles convincing people that she is right, those neuroses manifesting themselves in crying to release emotions when she thinks other people are not looking. Aaron Altman is a news reporter, brilliant in his understanding of the stories he covers, but who is generally under-appreciated as the geek. Jane and Aaron are best friends and regularly work together on news pieces. While Jane respects Aaron professionally, Aaron in turn is secretly in love with Jane. Both Aaron but most specifically Jane abhor the trends of news being more entertainment than news, and the focus of style over substance. Into the bureau enters Tom Grunick, who is hired as the new news anchor. Tom has had a meteoric rise in the business starting in sports, getting a job as a sports anchor before moving onto a news desk as anchor. Tom realizes that he has no business being in "news", with the issues of general news, and especially political news in Washington, not coming naturally to him. He also realizes that his strengths are as a salesman, specifically of himself, largely because of his good looks and his good communication skills, and by association anything of which he speaks. Tom admires Jane in every respect and wants her to be his mentor in learning the ropes of his job. He, however, epitomizes everything she abhors in news, she believing it his own job to better himself as a news person. Regardless, Jane is attracted to Tom and somewhat hopes that his admiration of her is also a romantic one. If they do allow themselves to enter into a personal relationship, they will have to find if they can overcome Jane's issues of what Tom represents professionally in the business she loves, and if they can relate to each other beyond their work. Also adding some complexity to their situation is Aaron, who sees Tom as competition both professionally and personally for what little personal time Jane has.