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In the news
Compiled from Times wires Donahue says yes to MSNBCEmmy-winning talk-show host Phil Donahue is ready to go toe to toe with Bill O'Reilly and Connie Chung as MSNBC tries to strengthen its hand in the cable news talk fight. Donahue, 66, will launch a topical show at 8 p.m. weeknights this summer. MSNBC said Wednesday he signed a long-term deal; it didn't reveal terms. Donahue's syndicated show aired from 1970 to '96. He said Sept. 11 and his desire to promote free speech convinced him to return to TV. "We will be bouncing off the front pages of the newspaper, as other cable shows do," Donahue said. "I hope we'll be civil, I hope we'll be different, and please, God, I hope we won't be boring." He'll be pitted against The O'Reilly Factor on Fox News Channel and a new CNN show led by Chung, which is supposed to debut in late spring or early summer. Oprah feels 'used' by BushOprah Winfrey felt "extremely used" when the White House implied she was too busy to tour Afghanistan schools on behalf of President Bush. The View co-host Star Jones said on the show Wednesday that Winfrey called her to say the story "was just not true." Winfrey said several weeks ago that the administration asked her to make the trip. She said she couldn't because of previous commitments, and some took that as a political snub. Winfrey thought White House aides went without her, but the trip was canceled. Jones said Winfrey told her, "Imagine my surprise, I wake up and read in the newspaper that I'm being cavalier, I'm too busy." Barbara Walters, another View co-host, said the administration told her the trip was going to happen anyway but eventually was determined to be too risky. TV notesAttorney General John Ashcroft makes his first visit to David Letterman's Late Show on Tuesday. Since February, Letterman has been running a tape of Ashcroft singing Let the Eagle Soar, a song he wrote, during a visit to a North Carolina theological seminary. . . . Meanwhile, Letterman may be the next late-night host to be "repurposed." His production company, Worldwide Pants, is having "informal discussions" with CBS about the Late Show being rebroadcast possibly a day later on other Viacom properties, Pants president Rob Burnett told thePhiladelphia Inquirer. MTV and VH1 "are the obvious suspects," Burnett said. Conan O'Brien's Late Night, on NBC, will be rerun early the next night on Comedy Central beginning Sept. 3. PeopleA man who claimed to be married to Meg Ryan was committed to an Alabama mental hospital after a closed hearing. John Michael Hughes, 30, of Navarre was accused of breaking into a California home in January that he believed belonged to Ryan. Hughes had claimed he married the actor last year. A California court released Hughes to his father's custody on the condition he enter a treatment program. Hughes' family lives in Mobile. . . . Tony Award-winning actor Jane Alexander is scheduled to teach at Florida State this fall under a program designed to attract high-profile professionals into academia.
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From the wire |
