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Lewis in hospital as he stops taking medication

Jerry Lewis has been hospitalized for several weeks trying to wean himself from a steroid medication he took for a life-threatening respiratory condition, his manager said Friday.

The 77-year-old comedian was trying to recuperate and strengthen his lungs at an undisclosed Las Vegas hospital as he stopped taking prednisone for pulmonary fibrosis, manager Claudia Stabile said.

Stabile said the hospitalization was designed to improve his condition, but she didn't know whether he would switch to an alternative drug for treating the illness after stopping prednisone.

"Hopefully the condition will improve enough where he won't have to take meds," she said.

Michael Jackson's father says he never beat his son but admits in a TV interview to be broadcast Sunday that he whipped him.

Joe Jackson told the British Broadcasting Corp. that he whipped Michael with a switch and a belt but says he never dealt out a beating.

"You beat someone with a stick," the BBC quoted him as saying in a story posted on its Web site.

The interview was conducted by Louis Theroux in an unspecified hotel room in the United States for a television program that follows unsuccessful attempts by Theroux to gain an interview with the 45-year-old pop superstar.

Michael Jackson has consistently accused his father of beating him as a child.

When asked about Michael Jackson's comments that he gets so nervous seeing his father that he regurgitates, Joe Jackson's says, "He regurgitates all the way to the bank."

They don't compare to Harry Potter, but early sales for Pfc. Jessica Lynch's authorized biography have topped those for such high-profile works as Toni Morrison's Love and Anne Rice's Blood Canticle.

I Am a Soldier, Too, written by former New York Times and St. Petersburg Times reporter Rick Bragg, has sold about 25,000 copies in its first two days, according to publisher Alfred A. Knopf.

"The sales for the first two days are the strongest for any title we've published this year," Knopf publicist Paul Bogaards said Thursday.

The Lynch book, the story of the most famous soldier to emerge from the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, was released Tuesday, Veterans Day.

Christopher Reeve says a device implanted in his chest allows him to breathe without a ventilator for hours at a time.

The Superman actor, paralyzed from the neck down in a horseback riding accident in 1995, demonstrates the pacemaker-like device during an interview with Barbara Walters for 20/20 scheduled to air at 10 p.m. Friday on WFTS-Ch. 28.

When asked by Walters whether he ever thought he would be off the ventilator, Reeve says, "I was hoping for years.

"It gives me now, a sense of one more piece of the puzzle being solved . . . because a spinal cord injury affects every system in the body," Reeve said in a portion of the interview posted on the ABC News Web site.

Reeve became the third person in the United States to undergo the procedure Feb. 28 at University Hospitals of Cleveland. It involved threading tiny wires through small incisions in the diaphragm that connect electrodes to a control box outside the body.

Add to the long list of fall TV season casualties the critically acclaimed drama Karen Sisco. ABC said Friday that it is taking the show off the Wednesday night lineup immediately.

"Rather than give up, we're going to complete production on the remaining episodes and aggressively relaunch the series this March in a new time period," said Susan Lyne, president of ABC Entertainment.

In its place, ABC will air the more popular Extreme Makeover on Nov. 26. On Dec. 3, the network will air Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, a redecorating show hosted by Trading Spaces carpenter Ty Pennington.

ABC also announced a Jan. 14 start date for The Bachelorette, the dating show that starred Bachelor runner-up Trista Rehn in its first edition earlier this year. (No word yet on whether recently ejected Bachelor contestant Mary Delgado of Tampa or Bachelor runnerup Kirsten Buschbacher, formerly of Valrico, are in the running.)