Letterman

LET'S NOT feel too sorry for Paris Hilton in the matter of David Letterman's disrespectful interview on Friday - oh, wait, nobody does feel sorry for her! In any case, she might have chosen Ellen DeGeneres or The View or even Oprah to promote her new fragrance. But she picked Letterman, and got what he is famous for. And she got more publicity out of her hurt feelings than she has had for some time. So, it's win-win! Book tour Bill Clinton, in the Book People store down in Austin, Texas, was pushing his new bestseller, Giving.

A word of warning to Channel 13 news junkies who opt to ride out late-ending Orioles games for your daily does of Denise, Al, John and Bob: If the game runs too long, you're going to be out of luck.That's what happened Tuesday night, as the longest nine-inning game in major league history didn't end until after midnight and WJZ went right from the game to "The Late Show with David Letterman.""After a certain time, we know that the news audience just isn't there," says program director Mike Easterling, guessing that most viewers have decided not to watch the news at all or have tuned to other stations ("We hope that doesn't happen," he says)

"The Late Shift" is not awful, which must be regarded as something of a triumph for HBO.Of course, it's not very good, either, so at best what we have is a small victory. The casting is bad, the acting mediocre, the writing fine, the story incomplete, the compelling reason to watch this thing hard to grasp.But for a movie reputed to be the biggest disaster since the Hindenburg, this chronicle of the late-night wars between David Letterman and Jay Leno that dominated the entertainment press a few years back is almost watchable.

If you want to know what real pressure is, just try using a Barbie doll to set underwear on fire on national television. I did this on Dec. 21, on the David Letterman show. Technically, I was on this show to promote a book, but unless you're an extremely deep thinker such as Madonna, the Letterman people don't like you to just sit there and talk. They want you to have what is `` known in the TV business as a Strong Visual Element, to keep things moving along. To give you an idea of what I mean, here's how the Letterman show would rate two hypothetical guest spots:Weak guest spot: Nobel Prize-winning research scientist explains revolutionary new and easy way to prevent cancer.

While most of the attention surrounding late-night network television in the last 18 months has centered on the showdown between David Letterman on CBS and Jay Leno on NBC, a 15-year-old ABC News program, "Nightline," has experienced a surge in growth that has put it in the strongest competitive position in its history.More viewers than ever are watching network television in the late-night hours, largely because of the addition of Mr. Letterman and his hit "Late Show" on CBS. Mr. Letterman moved immediately to the top of the late-night ratings when he switched from NBC in 1993.

If things are as good at CBS Sports as new president David Kenin proclaims, then someone should tell David Letterman.America's favorite late-night funnyman has been making rather ferocious sport of his own network's sports division of late.For instance, toward the end of the U.S. Open fortnight, Letterman ran a video quiz, asking if the man pictured holding a camcorder was (A) a devoted tennis fan, (B) a parent of one of the players or (C) all that's left of CBS Sports.When Kenin was relayed that story recently during the Presidents Cup golf tournament in Lake Manassas, Va., he chuckled and said, "Hey, that's David.

I have terrible news. A new Dark Age may soon envelop Baltimore: the Days without Dave.As you must know, David Letterman is moving his show from NBC to CBS and from 12:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. This should be cause for great joy, except to the odd insomniac. Now you can be hip before midnight.But maybe not in Baltimore, which some already consider hipness-challenged.As it stands today (and in the wacky world of TV, nothing stands still; otherwise we'd still have "My Mother the Car" on the air)

The term I keep hearing is . . . hold on a sec, just saw it in the paper . . . "late-night wars," which apparently refers to the battle for ratings between Dave, Jay, Arsenio, Chevy, Conan and any other poor fool they trot out for the cameras after 11 p.m.The term is strangely riveting. Late-night wars! It conjures up images of David Letterman in full camouflage gear scrambling into a foxhole while lobbing hand-grenades at Jay Leno; a sneering Conan O'Brien strafing Chevy Chase in an F-10 Tomcat while screaming "Die, die, die!"

Should Garry Shandling step into NBC's late-night slot made vacant by David Letterman this summer, the comedian will have to hope the celebrity fans of his fictional show will like the real him.Mr. Shandling, the host of HBO's satirical "The Larry Sanders Show," has become a cult hit among Hollywood performers who like the way the show spoofs the industry."It's funny," said actor Alec Baldwin during a recent taping of the season's premiere show. "It's different. I enjoy the show within the show.

For some time now I have noticed certain parallels between David Letterman's life and my own.He was born in the Midwest and I was born in the Midwest.He does four TV shows a week and I do four newspaper columns a week.He makes $14 million a year and I . . . OK, so our lives are not identical.But I have always enjoyed his show and when Channel 54 offered me a four-minute satellite interview with him yesterday, I jumped at the chance.Channel 54 will be running Letterman's new CBS show when it debuts at 11:35 p.m. on Aug. 30. That's because its general manager and resident genius, Joe Koff, snatched it up when Channel 11, the CBS affiliate, decided it had to run Arsenio Hall instead.

Phoenix on Letterman keeps entertaining It became an overnight sensation: Joaquin Phoenix's appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman on Wednesday night during which the actor appeared to forget the name of his Two Lovers co-star, Gwyneth Paltrow, stuck gum under the edge of Letterman's desk and apparently cursed at bandleader Paul Shaffer for laughing at him. There were also intervals of silence. Hours afterward, video of the visit had become an Internet sensation: By Thursday evening, a posting of the interview had been seen more than 180,000 times on YouTube.

The pseudo-improvised reality series The Hills, as it plays out beyond MTV on tabloid covers, is back stronger than ever after a three-month hiatus. Last Monday's return averaged 4.8 million total viewers, a new high for the show. The Hills, set among young aspirants of the Hollywood Hills music and fashion industries, continues to track the emotional warfare between former best friends Lauren Conrad and Heidi Montag while delving more deeply into the twistedness, gaslighting and superficiality of the boyfriends who ensure that the tortured rivals treat each other like Crips and Bloods.

It didn't take long for late-night TV and politics to re-establish their symbiotic relationship. On Wednesday, the first night back since the Hollywood writers' strike started Nov. 5, The Late Show With David Letterman opened with Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Rodham Clinton, while Jay Leno's Tonight Show featured Republican candidate Mike Huckabee. Great face time for the candidates on the eve of the Iowa caucuses. But not such great viewing for fans, especially those of The Tonight Show.

LET'S NOT feel too sorry for Paris Hilton in the matter of David Letterman's disrespectful interview on Friday - oh, wait, nobody does feel sorry for her! In any case, she might have chosen Ellen DeGeneres or The View or even Oprah to promote her new fragrance. But she picked Letterman, and got what he is famous for. And she got more publicity out of her hurt feelings than she has had for some time. So, it's win-win! Book tour Bill Clinton, in the Book People store down in Austin, Texas, was pushing his new bestseller, Giving.

Good morning --Ben Roethlisberger -- Did seeing Mark Cuban wear your jersey on Letterman ease your pain?

A former Baltimore newscaster and a former Indianapolis weatherman -- now two of television's titans -- are scheduled to face off Dec. 1 when Oprah Winfrey appears on Late Show With David Letterman, marking the end of a long icy relationship, or perhaps the beginning of a deeper freeze ahead. The queen of daytime TV appeared on Letterman's show twice when it was on NBC, but had said she wouldn't appear again because she didn't like being the butt of his jokes, as she often is. Dec. 1, however, is opening night for her Broadway production of The Color Purple, just across the street from the old Ed Sullivan Theater, where Letterman's show, now on CBS, is taped.

On May 22, 2005 LENA F. HEDRICK (nee Letterman); beloved wife of the late Lester P. Hedrick; devoted mother of Dawn Hedrick and special friend of Nancy Benson; dear sister of John E. Letterman. Also survived by many nieces and nephews. Relatives and friends are invited to call Schimunek Funeral Home, Inc, 9705 Belair Road, (Perry Hall) on Tuesday from 3 to 5 and 7 to 9 P.M. Funeral Services will be held on Wednesday at Perry Hall Presbyterian Church, at 10 A.M. Interment Parkwood Cemetery.

NEW YORK - Four years ago on Mother's Day, Donna Thomases led a gathering in Washington, D.C., of 750,000, mostly women, demanding tougher gun laws. It was a glorious day, as she remembers it, of emotional speeches and sweeping promises followed by a flood of positive news reports about the "Million Mom March." Then a New Jersey housewife who had been spurred to action by the horrific 1999 shooting at a Jewish center in Granada Hills, Calif., Thomases was on a broad mission to force this country's gun-toting citizenry to change its ways.

Harvey Pekar, the author and subject of the cult comic book American Splendor, cannily courted the post-counterculture crowd when he appeared on The David Letterman Show in the 1980s. One of the happiest payoffs of his self-promotion is the new movie American Splendor, which tells the rags-to-more-rags story of Pekar's life as a jazz critic and collector, Veterans Administration hospital clerk, struggling comic-book writer, three-time husband and cancer survivor. The movie plunks down animated Pekars, and near-direct lifts from his comics, in the midst of scripted, live-action scenes.

What more could David Letterman want? For years Letterman has berated CBS program executives for the network's lackluster lineup of 10 p.m. shows, complaining - both on the air and off - that the ratings-impaired lead-ins left him at a disadvantage to Jay Leno's Tonight show on NBC. But this year, CBS is challenging NBC's long-time dominance in the 10 p.m. time slot with its strongest slate of shows in years. The showdown of the two networks begins tonight. CBS is aiming at what it considers the soft underbelly of the NBC 10 p.m. lineup - a second-year drama called Crossing Jordan - with CSI: Miami, a spinoff of TV's biggest hit of recent seasons, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.