Pia Haraldsen

Pia is an Norwegian TV personality, comedian and author, most known for her interviews at the Norwegian TV show Rikets Røst.

Pia Haraldsen Career

She started her public career in 2001 by going to Haakon, Crown Prince of Norway's wedding, which she was invited to because of her relation to the queen. In the wedding she met Crown Prince Guillaume of Luxembourg and they began dating in 2002. They became a high profile couple, but the relationship ended after a year and a half. In 2004 she received a lot of attention for her dress at the baptism of Princess Ingrid Alexandra of Norway.[citation needed] In the following years she had numerous appearances in Norwegian media.

Her first occupation was as a columnist in Norway’s biggest newspaper, VG. (2004), then she moved on to the Norwegian edition of the magazine Cosmopolitan as a Fashion & Entertainment Editor (2004/2005). In February 2005 she got a job as a jury member in the TV show Shopaholic at TV 3. Later that year she became the TV host of the shows Kjendisjakten (2005) and then Frokostquiz (2006) at TV 2, Norways biggest commercial channel.

In February 2007 she started as Political Editor at one of TV 2's most populuar shows Rikets Røst (translated as "The Voice of the Nation") hosted by comedian Otto Jespersen where she punked and provoked political interview subjects with dupe questions and her fake ignorance.

November 2007 she published her first book; Pias bekjennelser, shopping, sjekking, skikk og bruk.

Pia Haraldsen Pia Haraldsen's interview with NYC Councilmember James Oddo

In the summer of 2007, Haraldsen filmed an interview with New York City politician James Oddo.[5] She asked how Barack Obama could run for president, as he is not a U.S. citizen (she said she read somewhere he was "African-American") and asked if Senator Clinton could be president after the "cigar incident?". The councilman reacted to the questions and threw the crew out of the his office.

After the interview was shown on Norwegian Television it was posted on YouTube[6] and attracted attention. Haraldsen was interviewed by large American media outlets like USA Today, Inside Edition and FOX News.[7]

In early October 2008 Haraldsen was denied visa by US authorities. After the US Embassy in Oslo had sought a second opinion from the Department of Homeland Security. The refusal states that she does not appear to fulfill requirements for journalists, however, it states she may apply for an artist visa. Haraldsen wanted to cover the presidential election for TV 2 Entertainment. A tourist visa application takes about two weeks to process whereas a journalist visa only takes 3 days.

--[[User:Browsern|Browsern]] 09:33, 20 October 2008 (PDT)Ole Martin