Ted Turner

With John Wayne and Humphrey Bogart at his side, next spring Ted Turner will try to muscle his way onto another channel of your cable dial.Mr. Turner will launch Turner Classic Movies, his ninth channel, April 14, the 100th anniversary of the first commercial movie. The new Turner Broadcasting System channel will feature films 24 hours a day, without commercials.In going after the classic-movie niche on cable television, Mr. Turner faces a small but innovative competitor in American Movie Classics.

Annapolis sailor Chris Larson , winner of this year's Melges 24 World Championship, is on US Sailing's list of 10 nominees for the 2009 Rolex Yachtsman of the Year Award. Larson, who was nominated for the award in 1993, 1994, 1996 and 2002 and won it in 1997, has a distinguished resume that includes America's Cup and Volvo Ocean Race campaigns and eight other world championships. The Rolex award, established in 1961, is given to a man and woman for accomplishments in competitive sailing.

ON AND OFF THE AIR:* Give Ted Turner credit. The cable mogul knows how to be succinct, as viewers can see in tonight's "First Person With Maria Shriver" special (at 10 o'clock, Channel 2). On the subject of what he knew about his new bride before marriage, he says this:"I knew a lot. I knew she was a protester in Vietnam against the Vietnam War, and I knew that she was in the movies, and I knew she did exercise videos, and I knew she was cute."Hmmmm. That encompasses several decades in the life of one of America's most evolutionary celebrities, actress Jane Fonda, who also appears in the Shriver interview.

monday Call Me Ted: by Ted Turner with Bill Burke (Grand Central, $30). Entrepreneur and philanthropist Ted Turner tells his life story. tuesday You: Being Beautiful : by Dr. Michael F. Roizen and Dr. Mehmet C. Oz (Free Press, $26.95). This follow-up to Roizen and Oz's best-seller, You: Staying Young, targets three dimensions of beauty: looking beautiful, feeling beautiful and being beautiful. Just After Sunset : by Stephen King (Scribner, $28). This collection of 13 tales shows King molding the themes and set pieces of horror and suspense fiction into nuanced blends of fantasy and psychological realism.

TED TURNER has given the largest gift anyone has ever heard of -- $1 billion -- to the United Nations.There is no doubt that some portion of that money will do good.But considering the notorious inefficiency of the U.N. bureaucracy, the percentage of Mr. Turner's money that will go directly to helping needy people is a separate question.Maybe next time, Ted Turner will consider the International Rescue Committee, which has just been named as the 1997 recipient of the Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize.

As I write this, it's still not clear whether the American League or National League will occupy prime time tonight -- but by the time you read this, you'll know. If the Toronto Blue Jays clinched the pennant last night, then the NL's Philadelphia Phillies and Atlanta Braves will play their sixth game in prime time. But if the Chicago White Sox won last night, the seventh game of the Toronto-Chicago series will be played tonight, pushing the Phillies-Braves game to a daytime start at 3 p.m. on CBS. Either way, baseball will occupy prime time beginning at 8 p.m., leaving the following as the best available alternatives for non-baseball fans.

No one seems to have much noticed it, but Ted Turner is not so subtly taking over the world -- or at least the world of communication.It isn't just that CNN is available via satellite in 137 countries or that Mr. Turner can put on his own poor man's Olympic Games every four years with the Goodwill Games and inspire global participation.That doesn't begin to describe the influence suddenly wielded by a guy once dubbed the Mouth of the South but now looking more like the Georgia Giant.Pretty soon, he may own just about everything worth owning, infiltrating and attempting to control America's television viewing habits in the process.

Turner Pictures' $20-million "Gettysburg," which opened at theaters nationwide yesterday, is as close to moguldom as Ted Turner can get. For now, at least.It's his "Birth of a Nation" meets "Ran": a four-hour plus adaptation of "The Killer Angels," the 1975 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Michael Shaara about the men behind one of the bloodiest battles in U.S. history. It has an all-star, all-guy cast that includes Martin Sheen (Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee), Tom Berenger (Confederate Lt. Gen. James Longstreet)

Ted Turner has an answer for everything.At least, that's the way it seemed during his press conference with TV critics gathered in Los Angeles for their summer press tour.Why has his Cartoon Network failed to catch on?"Well, first of all, look at the cartoons we bought from the Hanna-Barbera library. You've got Yogi Bear and 'The Jetsons' and 'The Flintstones' and 'The Smurfs' -- they're all decent, sweet, little programs."We don't go to the shoot-'em-up type cartoons that Fox network has with, you know, the Power Rangers.

Pack rats who were unable to get themselves inside the Convention Center when "Antiques Roadshow" came to town last year, worry not. Tonight on CNN, you'll get the chance to look behind-the-scenes of one of PBS' most popular series. Tonight's "CNN Newsstand" will feature a backstage look at the "Roadshow," courtesy of correspondent Bruce Burkhardt. Included in the hourlong show is an interview with a woman who realized a dream many of us have had: a table she bought for $25 was appraised at nearly $1 million.

Orioles interim manager Dave Trembley might not be treading on new baseball ground, but he's not exactly headed on a well-worn path. Trembley is the seventh man in modern baseball history to manage in the big leagues without any professional playing experience - minor leagues or otherwise. The highest level of competition that Trembley, a catcher, ascended to was a Canadian summer league in 1973-1974. The good news: All but two of the seven managed more than one season. The bad news: None finished his managerial career with a record over .500.

ATLANTA -- Ted Turner's slow slide from power at Time Warner came to a formal close yesterday as his final term as a board member ended and he was sent off with a standing ovation at the company's annual meeting. Turner, plain-spoken as always, took the stage to bid farewell. Though he chose not to stand for re-election, he has long lamented his loss of influence at Time Warner. And so the severing of his official ties came with a hint of bitterness. "I've been with the company and its successors for 55 years," Turner told shareholders.

Gary Jobson's ship has come in. The Annapolis yachtsman, author and television commentator will be honored for his tireless promotion of sailing when he is inducted Oct. 16 into the America's Cup Hall of Fame. The selection of Jobson and Australian Alan Bond - both America's Cup winners - was announced yesterday by the Herreshoff Marine Museum in Bristol, R.I. They will join the 53-member Hall, which includes Dennis Conner, Russell Coutts, Ted Turner and the late Sir Peter Blake. "It's a huge honor," said Jobson, 52. "When I look at the list of members, I feel quite humble.

NEW YORK - Ted Turner, the vice chairman of AOL Time Warner and its largest individual shareholder, said yesterday that he had sold about 60 million shares, more than half of his holdings in the company, for about $789 million. People close to Turner said the sale reflected a growing disenchantment with the company's prospects. He effectively capitulated to the 70 percent decline in the share price over the past two years, giving up hope of a significant rebound in the near future. The reasons for his timing in unloading such a large stake were unclear.

WASHINGTON -- You can't spend a half-hour with Ted Turner without realizing how he got where he is. Smart and funny and frank, he turns an interview into a two-way interrogation, punctuating almost every statement with a "right?" or a "wouldn't you agree?" that is anything but rhetorical. He's as hopeful for a lively interchange as any reporter. His restless personality fills a hotel suite at the Ritz-Carlton with a charged and sometimes antic air. The atmosphere he generates is engaging, not intimidating.

Ed Turner, 66, who helped establish CNN as a major respected news organization, died Saturday at George Washington University Hospital in Washington after a bout with liver cancer. "Ed loved his profession, his staff and his network," former CNN chairman Tom Johnson said. "His loyalty to Ted Turner, to me and to excellent standards of journalism never will be forgotten." Mr. Turner was hired in 1980 as one of the first news professionals brought into the company. That he coincidentally shared the last name of founder Ted Turner earned him the nickname "No Relation" Turner, CNN Miami Bureau Chief John Zarella said.

WASHINGTON -- You can't spend a half-hour with Ted Turner without realizing how he got where he is. Smart and funny and frank, he turns an interview into a two-way interrogation, punctuating almost every statement with a "right?" or a "wouldn't you agree?" that is anything but rhetorical. He's as hopeful for a lively interchange as any reporter. His restless personality fills a hotel suite at the Ritz-Carlton with a charged and sometimes antic air. The atmosphere he generates is engaging, not intimidating.

WHILE CONGRESS drags its heels on paying the country's dues to the United Nations, Ted Turner has forged ahead with one of the boldest philanthropic moves in recent history. His plan, dreamed up and announced over a two-day period last week, is to give $1 billion over the next decade to the humanitarian work of United Nations agencies.Critics of the U.N. will surely note that it's one thing to be able to insist that funds be used directly for humanitarian projects or relief work and quite another to appropriate tax dollars to feed a bureaucracy that has earned a reputation as wasteful and inefficient.

You have to wonder just what in heaven's name is wrong with this world when a couple of crazy kids like Sean "Puffy" Combs and Jennifer "J.Lo" Lopez can't make it work. Sure, there were the career demands, the infamous dress, the gunplay, not to mention the looming threat that the Puffster might actually wear some of the clothing from his new fashion line in public. Still, even given these love bumps -- oh, and I guess you do have to figure in the potential for hard time -- happily-ever-after should at least have had a chance.

Pack rats who were unable to get themselves inside the Convention Center when "Antiques Roadshow" came to town last year, worry not. Tonight on CNN, you'll get the chance to look behind-the-scenes of one of PBS' most popular series. Tonight's "CNN Newsstand" will feature a backstage look at the "Roadshow," courtesy of correspondent Bruce Burkhardt. Included in the hourlong show is an interview with a woman who realized a dream many of us have had: a table she bought for $25 was appraised at nearly $1 million.