Presenter learned a lot

Press, 14 September 1988, Page 18

Presenter learned a lot

"Fashion is when everyone is wearing what they want to wear,” says Kim Buchanan, who co-pre-sents the Friday-night fashion series, “Lookin’ Good” (7.30 p.m. on Two). The 20-year-old Aucklander says she “had a really good time” co-pre-senting the programme and has gained a lot of television confidence. “You get used to the cameras. I’ve learned a lot. When I see myself I think, ‘Take that grin off your face!’ ” She says she discovered a lot about new designers through “Lookin’ Good,”

and confesses she’ll be spending plenty of her hard-earned wages on new clothes. • “I like lots of different clothes, and my own style is comfortable and easy. I don’t particularly like getting glitzed up. I like going to barbecues.” Kim Buchanan first wanted to be an actor when she was at Epsom Girls’ Grammar. She appeared in school productions and later went on to roles with the Auckland Youth Theatre and the Arena Theatre Company. Her other love was gymnastics, and she com-

peted successfully at junior national level, but found she could not pursue both passions simultaneously. “I was training, training, training, six nights a week for competition, then I was rehearsing, rehearsing, rehearsing, to appear in a production.” Despite high energy levels, she could not keep it up. Buchanan has taken acting classes with Maggie Eyre and Maggie Maxwell, and private improvisation classes with Sheila Summers. Last year she landed a small part in TVNZ’s

award-winning drama, "Erebus — the Aftermath,” and went on to do a national tour with the British comedian, John Inman, in "Pyjama Tops,” playing the part of a French maid. Buchanan wants to pursue both her presenting and acting careers. She is fronting the pilot of a new entertainment programme for Communicado at the moment, but has no other immediate work plans. “I’m taking each day as it comes. But over the summer I’ll be spending every spare moment at the beach at Piha."