Moraes on TV

(12:55: this entry has been updated with Discovery Communications statement.)

"After much prayer and months of careful thought, I've decided the next season, season 25, will be the last season of the "Oprah Winfrey Show'," daytime TV host Oprah Winfrey said Friday morning in a sometimes teary-eyed announcement confirming what her production company had announced to TV stations the previous evening.

"Why walk away and make the next season the last?" she asked rhetorically on the show, which aired Friday morning in Chicago, where her Harpo Productions is based.

"Here is the real reason -- I love this show. This show has been my life. And I love it enough to know when it's time to say 'goodbye.' Twenty-five years feels right in my bones and it feels right in my spirit. It's the perfect number, the exact right time. So I hope you will take this 18-month ride with me right through to the finale show," she said.

Some would argue it's also necessary, if she's ever going to get her much-delayed Oprah Winfrey Network launched, but she made no mention of the new cable network - a joint venture with Silver Spring-based Discovery Communication - during Friday's telecast.

When that cable network was announced, the game plan was to get it up and running in the second half of 2009 - now-ish. But it stalled for various reasons and reports surfaced earlier this month that Discovery Communications CEO Zaslav was urging Winfrey to focus all her attention on getting the cable net up and running.

(Friday afternoon, Zaslav issued a statement about Oprah's announcement: "There is no bigger brand in media than Oprah Winfrey. She has changed the broadcast landscape and how people consume television....Discovery Communications has a tremendous partner in Oprah, and we look forward to bring her and her creative vision, programming and unique voice to approximately 80 million homes on OWN.")

Instead of talking about OWN, Winfrey talked Friday about the "yellow brick road of blessing that have led me to this moment with you."

"Twenty-four years ago, on September 8, 1986, I went live from Chicago to launch the first national 'Oprah Winfrey Show.' I was beyond excited, and, as you might expect, a little nervous. I knew then what a miraculous opportunity I had been given."

Friday is Winfrey's last taping day of her show for the rest of the calendar year. On Friday's program, which aired at 9 a.m. in Chicago where her Harpo Productions is based, she said that during the holiday break, she and her team will brainstorm about how to wrap up the show's 25-year run.

"Season 25, we are going to knock your socks off. So the countdown to the end of the 'Oprah Winfrey Show' starts now."

Here's a clip:

Sarah Palin performed like the Osmond family for Oprah Winfrey.

According to Nielsen's early stats, Palin's pre-taped interview with Oprah, which aired Monday on the daytime diva's syndicated talker, clocked the show's best household rating and share since a Nov. 9, 2007 broadcast. That day, Oprah's guest was the entire Osmond family.

Nielsen has not yet said how many actual people saw the Palin chat on Oprah's show.

Likewise, we do not yet have final stats for those portions of Palin's interview with Barbara Walters that have aired on ABC's "Good Morning America," "World News," or "Nightline." Sigh.

NBC announced Wednesday it is moving the Primetime Emmy Awards to Sunday, Aug. 29. The annual trophy show traditionally airs the Sunday before the start of the TV season, in mid-September.

But NBC has a contract to air NFL football on Sunday nights and those games rev up before the start of the TV season. Hence the Aug. 29 Emmy date.

In its announcement, NBC noted that the last time it aired the Emmys, in 2006 (NBC, ABC, CBS and Fox take turns airing the trophy show), the trophy show also had to air in late August and yet it clocked its biggest audience of the past four years.

It's true, that 2006 Emmycast averaged about 16 million viewers and the next year the show's audience plunged to 13 million after which it only attracted an average of 12.3 million viewers, followed by 13.5 million this past September.

On the other hand, the year before NBC's last Emmycast, 2005, the show logged an average of nearly 19 million viewers.

It's important to note that when NBC broadcast the Emmys in '06, Fox's "24" was named best drama series. The next year, 2007, when the trophy show took a ratings nosedive, HBO's "The Sopranos" was named best drama series.

Likewise, in 2008, AMC's "Mad Men" won the best-drama derby, and won the trophy again in 2008.

Once before, way back in 2004, which yes, is the year before Emmy attracted that crowd of 19 mil, the show also took a plunge, attracting a puny crowd of 14 million. Not coincidentally, in 2004, "The Sopranos" was also named best drama series by TV academy voters.

It would seem that, more important than whether the show airs on August or September, is whether a cable series, with their relatively puny audiences, takes home the trophy for best drama.

Because the show is tape delayed to the west coast, millions of potential viewers are able to find out what shows and what actors have won by the time the broadcast gets underway in their TV market.

This may explain why the Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced in April that its Golden Globe Awards, feting both TV show and films, would air live across the United States for the first time in 2010.

Maybe it's time for the TV academy to give up the time delay - a quaint relic of the past. Otherwise, between the August airdate and the way cable shows seem to have taken over the best-drama derby, you can expect the 2010 Emmy show to suffer quite the ratings punch in the nose.

Oh, and that next Golden Globe ceremony will air Sunday, January 17 at 5 p.m. on both coasts -- on NBC.

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin continues campaigning for her new book, "Going Rogue: An American Life," but today is the start of an epic five, six, or seven-part series -- depending on how you slice it - with Barbara Walters of ABC News. This morning: parts 1 and 2, on the morning infotainment show, "Good Morning America."

Though morning infotainment shows traditionally open up with hard news, "GMA" tosses tradition to the wind and dives right into the pre-taped Palin chat, after a brief mention of a new ABC News/Washington Post poll showing President Obama's job approval rating at 56 percent, and 52 percent of the public saying they trust Obama more than Republicans in congress to handle "the economy."

Because Oprah had Palin on her show Monday to woo back conservative viewers who'd been annoyed when Oprah endorsed and campaigned for President Obama, she feared to tread into Obama territory on Monday. Tuesday, Babs rushed in:

"Barack Obama: On a scale of one to 10 - 10 being the best, how do you rate Barack Obama?" Babs wonders - only she says the president's name like he's some cheap Argentinian hooker Palin's husband, Todd got caught visiting.

Palin gives Obama a four because, she says "our economy is not being put on the right track" and he's been "dithering" over "some of our national security questions that have go to be answered for our country."

Unlike the previous day's Oprah interview, today's ABC's Palin interview is a sort consome of heavily edited Q&A, featuring loads of dizzy-making close-up shots of Palin's face.

Babs wonders whether Palin thinks Obama deserved to win the Nobel Peace Prize. This is like asking Kim Basinger whether Alec Baldwin deserves the Emmy for best comedy actor.

"Maybe some day there will be some deserved event and issues that he tackles that will allow that presentation of the Nobel Peace Prize - and I'll be the first to applaud," Palin responds. Raise your hand if you believe that - I want to play poker with you.

"But two weeks into office and he's already nominated? That's premature," Palin observes - an opinion shared by many.

Babs can't resist pushing Palin's David Letterman Button - Oprah had also resisted that urge.

Letterman, remember, is the guy who apologized - twice - over the summer for a joke he told on his CBS late-night show about Palin's daughter getting "knocked up" at a Yankees game. Letterman said he thought it was Palin's daughter Bristol who had gone to the game when the Palins were in New York. Turns out, it was younger daughter, Willow. And, of course, it was a really lame, lousy joke.

Dave's now got a segment on his CBS late night show that's called Things More Fun Than Reading the Sarah Palin Memoir. No 14: driving a jeep into a tree.

"Can you just shrug this kind of things off?" Babs wonders rhetorically.

"Well, I can cause those aren't even funny," she said. This is undeniably true.

Babs wonders whether Palin would like to go on Letterman's show.

"I don't think that I'd want to boost his ratings. I do want him to sell my book though, so I hope he keeps it up," Palin responds.

Which, Babs tells "GMA's Princess Di, just goes to show what a bright gal Palin is.

Here's something else Oprah neglected to ask Palin about: The Newsweek cover photo in which Palin is seen in black shorts, holding what appear to be two crackberries, her arm leaning on an American flag that has been draped over the back of a chair. The photo was taken from a profile of her that appeared in Runner's World magazine.

(Full Disclosure: The Washington Post Company owns Newsweek.)

"I think it so cheesy," Palin sniffs, adding that had she known the picture would end up on the cover of Newsweek "I would not have allowed Runners World to profile me."

Yes, it's Runners World's fault.

"For me, personally, it's a wee bit degrading," Palin continues. "Newsweek should be more policy-oriented, more substance-oriented, than showing some gal in shorts on the cover."

Clearly Palin has not been keeping abreast of what is going on in the magazine industry.

(FYI, Runner's World has issued the following statement, defending itself in re that Newsweek cover photo: On the cover of this week's issue of Newsweek is a photo that was shot for the August 2009 issue of Runner's World, in which Sarah Palin was featured on the monthly "I'm a Runner" back page. Runner's World did not provide Newsweek with the image. Instead, it was provided to Newsweek by the photographer's agent, without Runner's World's knowledge or permission.)

Oprah, in her effort to placate conservative viewers, had also steered clear of some of the juicier bits that have come out lately in the war of words between Palin and her near-son-in-law Levi Johnston, who is the father of daughter Bristol's baby Tripp.

Here too, Babs leads the charge:

"Levi has said you called Trig "The Retarded Baby," Babs says of Palin's youngest child, who has Down syndrome.

"It's heartbreaking to know he would say such a thing and that's not true," Palin shot back.

Johnston also claims Palin's marriage is "terrible and you're on the verge of divorce," Babs continues.

Palin insists she and Todd are a "solidly, happy, blessed couple."

Johnston says Palin was wise not to speak ill of him in the book because "she knows what I've got on her," Babs continues to grind down.

"He doesn't have anything on me," Palin snaps.

And, finally, Babs notes Johnston says he's going to sue for joint custody of his baby.

"It will be nice to see, even in legal proceedings, a desire to be part of the baby's life. That is a good sign," Palin says, scoring one on Levi.

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and daughters Willow (left) and Piper pose with talk show host Oprah Winfrey during a taping of "The Oprah Winfrey Show." (Image: REUTERS/George Burns/Harpo, Inc.)

Sarah Palin kicks off the TV leg of her campaign to sell copies of "Going Rogue: An American Life" this afternoon on Oprah's syndicated talk show -- which, in one of those happy coincidences, is happening at the exact same time Oprah is deeply mired in a campaign to revive that same show's ratings. We're live-blogging at 4 o'clock.

4:00: Oprah Gets Rolling:
"You've been waiting and I've been waiting," Oprah says. Palin comes out and Oprah "woo-hoo's" her. They hug. Palin finger waves.

4:02: It took Oprah under 2 minutes to make it all about her:

"You know there were reports last year that I had snubbed you during the election by not having you on my show. Did you feel snubbed?" she asked and yes it was her very first question.

Palin says no, apologetically, she was really busy what with this and that.

"Really?" Oprah asks incredulously. "So at the time of the campaign when everybody was saying that I was snubbing you, you didn't even know about it?"

This is already the best Oprah interview ever.

"It didn't register. No offense to you -- but it wasn't the center of my universe, okay?" Palin says.

4:09: Bristol Pregnancy Missed Teachable Moment

Palin says she thought the skeleton in her closet was the fact she had gotten a D on a college course. Really? Imagine her surprise when it turned out to be her daughter, Bristol's pregnancy.

"I was surprised that they knew; but I was surprised, too, that we didn't handle that issue, that challenge, better," she said."If we had been given that allowance to deal with the issue in a more productive way, we could have sent a message [that] "this is not to be glamorized'."

4:21: Katie Couric is the Enemy

Oprah notes that in the book she says Katie Couric "had a partisan agenda." Oprah replays that infamous bit in which Katie asked Palin what she reads and she could not/would not name a publication/book.

I'm obviously a lover of books and magazines and newspapers," Palin says. By the time she was asked the questions, she said, "I was already so annoyed" adding she thought it was asked "in the context of 'Do you read?'"

4:28:The Baby

Oprah and Palin talk at length about Trig, Palin's youngest child, who has Down Syndrome. Weirdly, neither of them ever calls Trig by name.

4:33: The Levi Question

"Everybody's waiting on The Levi Question!" Oprah says. The crowd "woo-hoo's!" with gusto.

Palin teeters briefly on The High Road:

"Because so much of the discussion with Levi has to do with his most beautiful baby boy, Tripp, my grandson, and Tripp's future, that I don't think a national television show is the place to discuss some of the things that he's doing and saying."

Then, plunges off that road and lands smack in Snarkville:

"I hear he goes by the name Ricky Hollywood now," she says. Oh snap!

"If that's the case, we don't want to mess up his gig he's got going," she adds. That gig? "Aspiring porn...I call it porn."

4:41: "Palin's Funniest Home Video"

Palin with Trig; Palin at the gym: "Sweat is my sanity."

Palin on taking daughter Piper trick-or-treating on Halloween: "I promised Piper that this time I would keep my distance so that I don't disrupt the fun that she has planned for herself and her friends," Palin said.

The ad breaks are now coming fast and furious, with little content in between. We're nearing the end.

4:50: Palin re-enacts resignation speech

After Oprah and Palin do the "women can have it all" blah, blah, blah, Oprah asks Palin why she resigned as Governor of Alaska last July. Palin dusts off the "I was heading into a lame-duck term" and that cues up Oprah for the old "why not just finished what you started?" follow-up question. It's all old material.

4:56: You are the Queen, Oprah

Only a few minutes to go, Oprah has to find a way to bring it back to being all about her. Can the queen of daytime TV do it?

"One final question," Oprah says. "Should I be worried? Because I have heard that you're going to get your own talk show."

"Oh," Palin says.

"Yeah -- come on," Oprah says sweetly -- only maybe not. Palin's not taking the hint. Finally, she gets it:

"Oprah, you are the queen of talk shows. There's nothing to over worry about."

"No, no," Oprah simpers.

"Yes," Palin insists, then, sensing this is playing big with Oprah, she plows ahead: "You can't shut off my mic so let me say this -- or maybe you can. You're the boss."

"No, I won't," Oprah assures her. "Go ahead" she insists.

"Okay, the inspiration that you have provided.....those were the years where I was a stay-at-home-mom -- got to watch you more than I watch you now... and being quite inspired by some of the challenges you were facing...you provided a lot of inspiration and I appreciate what you have done all these years," Palin cooed.

"Thank you for saying that," Oprah gushed.

It's official. They are in love.

5:00 The After-Show

The broadcast is over but, Oprah warns viewers, her interview with Palin continues on her web site. We are moving over to those bits now......

But Enough About You -- Let's Get Back to Me

Oprah, who appears to have felt not nearly enough time was spent during the show explaining how it's all about Oprah, returns to her favorite subject: "Even when people were saying I was snubbing you... I didn't appreciate it because I don't snub people" -- said the woman who snubbed David Letterman for how many years?

Then, remembering Palin was in the room, she adds: "Often times when you are a public figure, people say a lot of things about you that are, first of all, not true, can be painful, can be upsetting -- what was the worst for you?"

Palin, relieved to have finally found the question in there, says it was having her personal e-mails hacked....zzzzzzzzzzzzzz....

On a lighter note, Oprah wonders how Palin "honestly" felt about having Tina Fey parody her during the campaign.

Palin again goes into too-busy-to-have-noticed mode.

But, Oprah reminds her sweetly, she gave a quote to the press during the campaign, saying she had seen Fey play her, but with the volume turned off.

Palin recovers and says the first time she saw Fey as Palin, she actually thought it was herself on TV. Seriously, she did. We can't make this stuff up.

Palin also notes that when she finally went on "Saturday Night Live" with Fey, Fey needed some instruction in basic parenting skills, which she was only too happy to provide. Specifically, Fey was holding her baby, Alice, who kept looking back and forth between her mother who was made up as Palin, and Palin. So Palin stepped in and explained to Fey: "We are confusing your child."

"And we were," Palin adds, for good measure. We'll let you know how Fey responds to that crack.

And, finally, Oprah wonders whether the whole family got to decide whether she would run for vice president of the United States.

"This time there wasn't a family vote," Palin says.

"This was a mommy rules?" Oprah wonders.

"This was -- yep, " Palin says. "I'm going to make the decision," she adds, then quickly amends it to, "Todd and I would make the decision together." Great save.

Oprah Winfrey, on a campaign to climb back from last season's ratings slump (and, some say, to make sure her syndicated talk show goes out on top) is going to try to kiss and make up with conservative viewers Monday afternoon, when Sarah Palin is her guest on her syndicated talk show.

You may have noticed that the appearance by the former Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential candidate is happening smack dab in the middle of the November ratings derby.

It's also the day before Palin's new book, "Going Rogue: An American Life," is scheduled to hit bookstores.

It's Palin's first interview about the book but, far more important to Oprah, it's the first time the daytime diva and Palin will have met.

Oprah's camp has been teasing the heck out of the interview since late last week, when her Harpo production company released clips from the sitdown - which hopefully, are the most boring bits from the interview.

In one such clip Oprah wonders whether Levi Johnston, father of Palin's grandson, will be invited to Thanksgiving dinner, and Palin goes into full "it's lovely to think he would ever even consider such a thing/he needs to know that he is loved/he has the most beautiful child" mode:

"We don't have to keep going down this road of controversy and drama all the time - we're not really into the drama." said the woman who suddenly, mysteriously, held a news conference on the eve of the Independence Day holiday to announce she was resigning as Governor of Alaska to protect her family and escape ethics probes that she said have hampered her ability to govern and drained her family finances.

In another clip, Oprah asks whether Palin's breathtakingly bad interview with CBS News on-air talent Katie Couric was "a seminal defining moment for you?"

"The campaign said 'Right on! Good! You're showing your independence'....and, of course, I'm thinking 'If you thought that was a good interview I don't know what a bad interview was!'," she told Oprah, who'd dressed in demure black for the occasion.

Monday's interview is not just another show booking for Oprah. She's going whole hog this season to try to recover from the ratings tumble she took last season when her audience slid to under 7 million viewers. And, during one awful week in July, "The Oprah Winfrey Show" suffered its smallest ratings since its debut way back in 1985.

Industry navel gazers speculated Oprah had turned off some of her conservative viewers -- or, more accurately, they had turned her off -- when she not only endorsed then presidential candidate Barack Obama but even campaigned for him. (Palin, of course, was the running mate of President Obama's rival, Sen. John McCain.)

It was the first time Oprah had stripped off her apolitical veneer and publicly endorsed a political candidate. At the time, Oprah told CNN's Larry King she did it because "what [Obama] stands for" was "worth me going out on a limb for."

And her ratings took a tumble, though hers was not the only syndicated show to lose audience last season and she still managed to wind up at the top of the syndication heap at season's end.

Even so, Oprah has largely abandoned her whole aspirational programming mantra this season and gone in for the more purely commercial - like Oprah's gag-inducing Karaoke Challenge that just wrapped.

And who can forget Oprah's longest-two-day-interview-ever with Whitney Houston in mid-September that kicked off Houston's latest comeback attempt; Oprah's deliciously detailed interview with Erin Andrews, the ESPN reporter who was unknowingly videotaped nude in a hotel room by some stalker guy; and her highly touted, things-could-get-rough, face-to-face meeting between former world champion boxers Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield -- their first meeting since Tyson bit off part of Holyfield's ear during a 1997 WBA heavyweight title fight.

Oprah's under a lot of pressure to make news and goose ratings on her show, some say, because the prevailing wisdom is that she will announce by the end of this year she's ending her syndicated talker in the fall of 2011 to focus her attention on the much delayed Oprah Winfrey Network cable net, in which she is partnered with Silver Spring-based Discovery Communications. Oprah has been coy about exactly what she's going to announce and when, but Discovery suits reportedly are putting the squeeze on her to stop syndicating her talk show and move it to OWN, even though that network will only be available initially in about 70 million homes, while in syndication she has more than 100 million homes at her fingertips.

And, in re who stands to gain the most with Monday's interview: Palin's book is No. 1 Monday on Amazon.com's bestseller list. Meanwhile, "Say You're One of Them," a collection of short stories by Nigerian Uwem Akpan -- the latest selection by Oprah's Book Club -- was ranked No. 47. We rest our case.

Palin's book plugging will continue Tuesday morning, when ABC News unveils the first bits of Babs' Wawa's five-part - yes, that's right, five - chat with the former GOP vice presidential candidate about this and that. That interview will begin to unspool Tuesday on "Good Morning America" and will then continue that same night on "Nightline" followed by "GMA" Wednesday morning. You'll have to wait for Friday's "20/20" for the final installment of Babs-does-Sarah.

Richard and Mayumi Heene may see all their wishes come true, at Christmas-time.

The Fort Collins, Colo. couple who faked seven-year-old son's death-defying flight in a homemade weather balloon, are set to be sentenced for the hoax next month - two days before Christmas.

Given how completely the cable news networks, not to mention the millions of viewers, got duped last month by the Heene's camera-ready story that the silver, helium-filled balloon floating over the Colorado landscape contained their adorable little son, Falcon, who had stowed away inside and was likely a goner -- and the annual news drought that takes hold two days before Christmas -- it is extremely likely the Heene's Dec. 23 sentencing will be telecast around the world by the same cable news networks.

The Heenes pleaded guilty Friday to staging the Balloon Boy hoax, about three weeks after Mayumi Heene told investigators she and her husband lied to authorities and knew their son was not in the balloon but safely stashed away at home, according to a search warrant affidavit made public last month on the website of the Fort Collins newspaper, The Coloradoan.

(We already suspected as much since Falcon told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on international TV that he had hid in the family garage because his parents "said that we did this for a show" -- causing all hell to break loose).

"The motive for the fabricated story was to make the Heene family more marketable for future media interest" according to the affidavit.

The Heenes concocted the con game in hopes it would help them become stars of their own reality series. As their Balloon Boy Hoax unraveled, it was discovered the Heenes had been developing a reality series about their family with RDF Media USA, the same company that produces the ABC reality series "Wife Swap," on which the Heenes had appeared twice.

Richard and Mayumi Heene pleaded guilty Friday to a felony and a misdemeanor, respectively. The judge at Friday's hearing told the couple they may have to cough up some serious cash to various government agencies to cover the cost of effort to rescue Falcon. That fateful day, Falcon's parents had called 911, and the Federal Aviation Administration (and a local TV news outlet) to report their son was aboard the runaway balloon, causing authorities to shut down Denver International Airport -- ca-ching! -- and deploy National Guard helicopters in an attempt to pluck the balloon out of the air -- ca-ching!

Richard Heene pleaded guilty to attempting to influence a public servant -- a felony. Mayumi pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of false reporting to authorities. They had agreed to this plea deal to so that prosecutors would not try to have Mayumi, who is a Japanese citizen, deported if convicted of a felony, Reuters reports.

Their attorney David Lane was quoted this week saying prosecutors had agreed to recommend sentences of probation, with the possibility of up to 60 days in the slammer for Mom, and 90 days for Dad.

Larry King finally asked a question somebody did not want to answer.

Embattled former beauty pageant contestant Carrie Prejean tossed off her microphone, accused CNN show host King of "being inappropriate," and threatened to walk off "Larry King Live" Wednesday night after he asked her why she'd settled her lawsuit against the Miss California Pageant.

King immediately became 20 percent more interesting.

It all started when Prejean, who was dethroned as Miss California in June after lingerie-modeling photos of her emerged, stopped by King's show to promote new light-reading tome, "Still Standing, the Untold Story of My Fight Against Gossip, Hate and Political Attacks."

They were getting along like pledge sisters. King wondered "Who is your hero?" and Carrie confessed, "Sarah Palin is my hero." King noted "You characterize yourself as being Palinized. What do you mean?" and Carrie explained "there is this double standard that conservative women are fair game to be attacked and it's not right and it needs to stop."

But suddenly, about half way through this love-fest, Carrie got all up in Larry's grill, unclipping her microphone, threatening to walk off the show and strewing the word "inappropriate" all over the studio like confetti when he asked her why she had settled her claims of slander and religious discrimination against the Miss USA Pageant.

At first, she tried to blow him off with the old "as part of the mediation it's completely confidential" gag.

But Larry persevered, not understanding the Why The Face she was getting her cami-knickers in such a bunch -- maybe because just a few minutes earlier she had confirmed on the show that she made a "sexual type tape" for a boyfriend and had prattled on merrily about how she takes "complete responsibility for the decisions that I made when I was a teenager and I've learned a lot from it."

"Larry, you're being inappropriate - you really are," Carrie scolded, her white, white teeth flashing dangerously, her blonde, blonde hair shining menacingly.

"Inappropriate King Live continues. Detroit, hello," King said, moving on to viewer questions.

But Carrie thought she was not going to have to talk to the little people.

Even worse for our Carrie, the first question was:

"I'm a gay man and I love pageants. I'm sure that you, Carrie, have got great gay friends that helped you possibly win. What would you give them as advice if they wanted to get married?

This was, of course, a sensitive point for Carrie, what with her having declared in April on national TV during the Miss USA pageant that she was opposed to same-sex marriage when asked that very question by gossip blogger Perez Hilton who, for reasons perhaps best known to NBC and Donald Trump -- who co-own the pageant -- had been asked to be one of the pageant's judges.

So Carrie took off the microphone, and appeared to be talking to someone off-camera, but did not - contrary to what you may have heard -- leave the set.

King cut to commercial break. When they returned, King noted Carrie did not want to take phone calls from viewers.

"Yes, that was the agreement that you had with my publicist," Carrie said.

King said he had not gotten the memo, adding "And, I meant nothing of the question."

"Right -- and this is you and I talking and I appreciate that," Carrie responded, her white, white teeth flashing cheerily, her blonde, blonde hair shining invitingly.

Okay, what are you going to do next?" King asked, preparing to duck and cover.

"Oh my gosh. I'm just so excited to be, you know, promoting this book! I'm so excited to be an author now! I'm 22 years old and I think I've accomplished so much!"

Is there anything like live TV?

Here's the interview:

Just when you thought this story couldn't get any better, the suspended CBS News producer accused of trying to blackmail David Letterman to the tune of $2 million says it was all a silly misunderstanding and what Letterman took for a shakedown was really just another Hollywood movie deal.

"There was no extortion....there was a screenplay for sale," Robert Joe Halderman's lawyer Gerald Shargel told a judge in a Manhattan courtroom Tuesday in filing a motion to dismiss the case, according to news reports.

To which Letterman's attorney Daniel Horwitz reportedly replied that any attempt to "dress this up as anything other than classic blackmail is sophistry" noting the whole "movie treatment" concept was difficult to reconcile with Halderman having approached Letterman's driver at 6 a.m. with the so-called screenplay treatment and demanded a response to his business proposition lickety split. It's true, Hollywood deals usually are not brokered at that hour.

And of course, there's the whole, delicious,Letterman-was-shagging-my-girlfriend-who-used-to-be-Letterman's-girlfriend-but-she'd-promised-me-that-was-so-over aspect of the story.

Sadly, we'll have to wait until Jan 19 for the next chapter: in which Manhattan Criminal Court judge Charles Solomon rules on Shargel's motion.

Nearly one year to the day after Discovery Communications' top dog said Oprah Winfrey would stop syndicating her talk show in September of 2011 and move it to Discovery's new Oprah Winfrey Network, a blog report saying Oprah will stop syndicating her talk show in September of 2011 and move it to OWN gave The Reporters Who Cover Television the vapors.

"She has not made a decision yet," Winfrey's Harpo Productions said Thursday in a stern e-mail to hyperventilating reporters.

"As she has previously stated, she'll be making an announcement before the end of the year."

That statement is virtually identical to the scolding Harpo issued within hours of Discovery Communications CEO David Zaslav's crack about Oprah moving her talkshow to OWN -- a comment he made at his company's first earnings call as a public company back in early November of '08.

Back then Harpo said, patronizingly, that "while David Zaslav's comment are true that Oprah's current contract to produce 'The Oprah Winfrey Show' will expire in 2011, she has not made a final decision as to whether she will continue her show in syndication beyond that."

From which we learned Oprah really does not like men to make her announcements for her.

Zaslav's comment came about 10 months after Discovery and Oprah had announced they would create the joint venture cable network called OWN from the ashes of Discovery Health which would reflect Oprah's mantra about "living your best life" -- at which time Oprah noted she might move her talk show to the new channel in 2011.

And on Thursday -- as in November of 2008 -- CBS Television Distribution, which sells Oprah's syndicated talker to TV stations nationwide, issued a statement saying "we love Oprah and if she wants to continue her show we want to continue to be in business with her."

The big difference between then and now is that OWN has blown its 2009 launch date and that there a revolving door of executives has come and gone from the still-unlaunched network.
And, of course, Thursday's report from the blog Deadline Hollywood about "THE END OF 'OPRAH' AS WE KNOW HER," citing unnamed sources.

That story came out the day after the Los Angeles Times reported the still-unlaunched OWN had just hired 15-year Harpo veteran Lisa Erspamer as its new chief creative officer which, the LAT noted, "appears to signal that Winfrey might be close to announcing an official end date for her syndicated talk show."

The same day, Deadline Hollywood's nemesis, The Wrap also reported "one of Oprah Winfrey's most trusted aides is headed west to serve as chief creative officer for OWN -- a move that's raising questions about whether Winfrey is planning to give up her syndicated talkshow."

According to our unnamed sources, Winfrey, Zaslav; former Viacom CEO Tom Freston (who was hired to consult on OWN about a year ago) and OWN's CEO Christina Norman (who formerly headed Viacom's Vh1 and MTV) have been talking long and hard for the past several months about the new network and an announcement will be made before the holidays about the network's lineup and the new launch date. Those suits have been working hard on Oprah to get her to move the show to OWN.

A Discovery rep declined to comment on Thursday's blog report or this report, except to scoff at the blog's line about Zaslav having "demanded that Oprah 'move it or lose it' -- move her talk show to OWN or risk losing the [cable network] altogether."