Katie Couric

Prime 9 5 p.m. [MLB Network] The list on this show is of all-time baseball gaffes. Two great steroid denials - Rafael Palmeiro's finger-pointing in Congress (left) and Alex Rodriguez's interview with Katie Couric - probably won't make the list.

Planned network television coverage of Princess Diana's funeral tomorrow:On ABC:L 2 a.m.-5 a.m.: "World News Now," including live BBC coverage5 a.m.-8 a.m.: Live funeral coverage, with Peter Jennings and Barbara Walters8 a.m.-11 a.m.: Further coverage, plus a rebroadcast of major portions of the day's eventsOn NBC:2: 30 a.m.-3: 55 a.m.: Simulcast of MSNBC coverage, with Ann Curry3: 55 a.m.-10 a.m.: Live funeral coverage, with Tom Brokaw and Katie CouricOn CBS:2:...

Think you're way cool?Take a number. According to Entertainment Weekly's current "What is Cool" issue, you're behind David Letterman (there's news); a dead man (cult film director Ed Wood); the assembly-required furniture at Ikea and "Today" anchor Katie Couric (doesn't she belong in the "So uncool, they're cool" column?).The June 25 issue of the weekly magazine identifies cool people, places and things that have "the power to swing the thermostat of popular culture."Yes, but what is cool?

Having a network anchorwoman serve as host of a prime-time entertainment program intended to promote a coming awards show on the same network is a formula that guarantees controversy. Is this not the blurring of entertainment and news? Doesn't this diminish the credibility of the anchorwoman - et cetera, et cetera, et cetera? Whatever the answer to those questions, CBS is featuring its anchorwoman, Katie Couric, tonight in Couric's All Access Grammy Special. Before you prejudge, you should know two things: First, Couric is very good in this type of entertainment-interview format.

That sure was a stirring farewell to Mother Teresa on the Today show yesterday, although it got to be a bit much after a while, didn't it? What's that? You say that wasn't a tribute to Calcutta's beloved "saint of the gutters"? The three hours of mass veneration, the weepy goodbye videos from viewers who said she changed their lives, the gooey testimonials from adoring co-workers, the "We'll Miss You!" signs held aloft by the worshipful crowds shoe-horned into Rockefeller Plaza, the hugs, the kisses, the tears - you say all that was for who?

Katie Couric will make history if she takes over as anchor of the CBS Evening News in June as expected. But as the buzz about her impending departure from NBC's Today show intensifies, it is clear that she also faces a wall of questions over whether she has the right stuff to succeed as the first woman solo anchor of a network newscast. The question being asked again and again in one form or another: Does the broadcaster who rose to prominence in morning TV as the "girl next door" have the "gravitas" to anchor the nightly news?

APPARENTLY, SPECIAL thanks are due teen-age kidnap victims Jacqueline Marris and Tamara Brooks, whose courageous appearances on Today and the cover of People magazine have ushered the crime of rape into the sunshine where it belongs. The two California girls were grabbed from their cars while parked with boyfriends on a scenic overlook and terrorized for 12 hours before their abductor was shot to death Bonnie 'n' Clyde style by the rescuing police. Their nightmare continued when the morning news show bookers arrived, with their Spy vs. Spy tactics, to land the exclusive interview for their respective bosses.

A FEW years ago when my birthday raised around $265,000 for the Mayor's Fund to Advance New York, I never dreamed Mike Bloomberg, his board and I were going to make charitable fund-raising history. Few New Yorkers had ever heard of this discretionary fund back then. Recently, an online guide, Charity Navigator, named the Mayor's Fund the No. 1 "slam dunk" nation's charity. The four-star rating was based on fiscal management, overall organizational efficiency and capacity. Charity Navigator investigated more than 5,000 other charities.

The View lost some of its star power yesterday, and as a result, fans of the popular ABC talk show will be denied the chance to see one of the more promising celebrity showdowns of the fall. Star Jones Reynolds, who has been with the morning program since its debut in 1997, told viewers yesterday that she will be leaving the show next month. While she was purposefully vague in her on-air remarks and a follow-up statement issued through a publicist, it appears that, rather than quitting the show, she was fired by executive producer Barbara Walters.

As much as we talk and write about the power of the Internet, it is easy to forget that nothing focuses the nation's attention on a topic or event like TV - particularly the combined gaze of cameras from the major networks of ABC, NBC and CBS. That's the case tonight when the networks and a huge group of Hollywood A-listers present Stand Up to Cancer. All three network news anchors - Katie Couric, Charles Gibson and Brian Williams - will be reporting stories on medical advances and efforts.