Real Identities of celebrities

I believe it's also why Michael Keaton is Michael Keaton and not Michael Douglas.

 

I know a reporter who used her mother's more ethnic sounding maiden name at the request of her first news director. But then her real last name sounds rather close to a slang term for female genitalia, so probably a smart move.

But then a lot of TV reporters, especially women, also change their last names so that the crazy folk can't track them down at home. A lot of people see a cute younger woman "coming into their living room" every night and decide this reporter is a part of their life. Talk to enough people who work in TV and you'll meet several who have had to take out restraining orders or call the cops on viewers who got a little too close.