Merella at the City of Toronto 2007 Access, Equity and Human Rights Awards.

Late in January 2009 I posted an article headlined “Whatever happened to Merella Fernandez?” on this excellent website.

It started out with “‘Who cares about local media personalities in Toronto, Canada?’ is a good question.” And it finally answered this question with: “The local Toronto media personality Merella Fernandez is so cute and multiculturally interesting, however, that I feel compelled to press on. My story is that I lost sight of her for almost a year. I have now discovered where she has been all that time.”

About a year and a half later, in the middle of August 2010, I noted in an update to this article that Ms. Fernandez had vanished again, in the midst of some “dramatic cutbacks” at the local Citytv. And I ended this update with “if anyone who actually reads this does know even just a little more about exactly what Ms. Fernandez is up to right now, I hope they’ll tell us about it in the comments section below.”

Happily enough, a week ago this past Friday an eminent gentleman called josh posted a comment to the updated article, which read: “I saw her on CTV … i think she was reporting out of saskatoon/regina … I believe she is indeed now with CTV.”

I can now directly verify this latest intelligence myself, having seen Merella Fernandez twice on the CTV News Channel just this past week. And I note that the latest incarnation of the very sparse Wikipedia article on her concludes with: “As of April 2011, Merella works for her former employer CTV.”

For better or worse, my almost total lack of technical facility on almost any front (well, I can sort-of play the harmonica, half-ok) means that I am unable to post a still shot of Merella in her current TV incarnation, from recent CTV News Channel online clips. But I can post some clips themselves for online viewing. So:

Merella at the City of Toronto 2005 Access, Equity and Human Rights Awards.

Here’s Merella reporting on the ongoing rebellion in Libya as of April 12, 2011 ;  Here she is on the Royal wedding spoof video, April 18 ;  Here she is on Royal wedding security , April 19 (though if you don’t click again on the second CTV heading, you’ll have to wait a bit, through a long-winded prelude by Tom Kennedy) ; And here she is on “Rare Animals Found in Suitcase,” from just this past Friday, May 13!

Already it’s clear enough to me that Merella Fernandez on the CTV News Channel today is not quite the same Merella Fernandez I knew so well on the local Toronto CP24 a few years ago – which is hardly surprising, since we all change in so many different ways from day to day. I haven’t seen enough of her yet to have any altogether fresh opinions. But who knows?  Perhaps I will, not too much further down the road. Meanwhile, like another comment writer on my original January 2009 article, I would guess (a Mr. Dan Myers), I am very glad to see her back!

* * * *

I do want to take this opportunity to respond quickly to the main burden of Mr. Myers’s comment – and that of a similar comment from a lady called Jen. In both cases the argument is that Ms. Fernandez is not such a nice person to bump into up close, in person.

Merella back in the day.

According to Jen, Merella is “a nasty character to deal with. Very pushy and she thinks she’s god when doing some of the coverage.”Â  According to Dan Myers: “I don’t think that Merella was as down to earth as you write about. I met her at a gym that we both worked out at (near CityTV) and I found her to be standoffish and aloof. I guess her on air persona was a mask that she wore because she didn’t seem approachable in person. Maybe she just wanted to be left alone or was jaded by the business …”

I have to confess that I have never bumped into Merella Fernandez in person. I only know her “on air persona” – and even then from back a few years ago now (and as I note above, even this seems to have changed somewhat, based on her latest CTV News Channel appearances).

More of Merella back in the day.

I have, however, met and even occasionally worked with a few TV and other media journalists. And many people in this business seem to me pushy and think-they’re-god-like when doing some of the coverage. It’s arguable that if you aren’t a bit like that, at the very least, you will not survive in the business very long. The people who are like that will just eat you up, etc. That is no excuse for what Jen objects to, I am sure. But it may be worth bearing in mind.

Similarly, as Dan Myers himself almost seems to appreciate, it may not be all that surprising that a “very hot” (as Mr. Myers also puts it) female TV personality might wear a mask of being “standoffish and aloof” in a gym where many young men were up for hitting on her, perhaps often enough in unpleasant ways?

Merellla at a Rolling Stones’ concert in T.O., 2007.

Having said all this, it may well be that I somewhat exaggerate Ms. Fernandez’s “down to earth” qualities in my original article. I have read somewhere myself, eg, that she cannot cook and enjoys something of an upscale lifestyle.

At the same time, I’d stress that my “down to earth” comment about Merella arose in the context of a comparison of the on air personae of her and Nalini Sharma (another lady who, I have read on the net, can apparently be aloof or worse in person): “They are two quite different kinds of girls. Merella, it seems to me in any case, is very down to earth. At one point she was even doing the CP24 car show, and doing it well, I thought — especially for a woman. Nalini, on the other hand, as her very name might suggest, is more like an exotic princess out of the Arabian nights. Merella somehow made Nalini seem more exotically interesting. And Nalini made Merella seem more reliably down to earth — the way someone who is entrusted with delivering the news ought to be.”Â  I think I am finally happy enough to stand by my original memories of these two (both very hot, I certainly agree) ladies on the local television airwaves of several years ago now! That at least is how they seemed to me then.

Merella on the job 2008.

Finally, I can’t resist adding that Mr. Myers taxes me as well with an incorrect spelling of “Malvern.” I cannot claim any status as a spelling bee champion. (I have a wife who is much better at such things, just for starters.) But, as best as I can make out, if I have spelled “Malvern” incorrectly in my article, Mr. Myers has also spelled “Malvern” incorrectly in his comment. And  I remain at a loss as to just what the correct spelling might be! Best wishes, in any event, to both Dan Myers and Jen – and of course to josh, who first clued me in to the latest chapter in the ongoing adventures of a very hot on air persona, whom I am very happy to think I too will be seeing at least a little more of, in the days, and weeks, and months, and hopefully even years and years and years ahead.. Merella Fernandez is our future north of the North American Great Lakes, and it still looks pretty good to me.