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Thursday, December 14, 2006
Katie Couric Pages CNN’s Dr. Gupta
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The doctor is in….at the “CBS Evening News with Katie Couric.”
CNN’s ultimate slacker, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, will contribute reports over the next year to Couric’s newscast — effective “immediately,” according to CBS News and Sports president Sean McManus. Gupta will continue working full-time for CNN, while contributing as many as 10 reports to CBS.
With CBS mired in third place among the network evening news shows, Couric-bashers may take this as a sign that she and her show are in need of emergency triage. But really, it’s just that the smart-as-a-whip and telegenic Gupta wasn’t working hard enough. After all, the Atlanta-based brain surgeon is CNN’s chief medical correspondent and associate chief of neurosurgery at Grady Memorial Hospital, where he still performs regularly scheduled surgery one day a week. He was an embedded reporter in Iraq with the U.S. Navy’s medical unit (he performed emergency surgery several times), covered Hurricane Katrina and the tsunami and, oh, yes, he writes a column for “Time” magazine. The man could be doing so much more, right?
At least he’ll find a familiar face at the CBS holiday party. Anderson Cooper recently began contributing to “60 Minutes,” while continuing to work fulltime for the Atlanta-based cable channel. Which makes us wonder, how long before Larry King starts hosting “Survivor?”
As the Golden Globes Turn
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Those foreign critics love them some sex and drugs, don’t they?
Pot smokers….bigamists….bed-hoppers…..They cleaned up big time in today’s Golden Globe nominations for TV. Nobody really knows who the esteemed members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association are, but it’s clear they swoon over the non-G-rated goings on on “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Desperate Housewives.” I don’t really have a quibble with either shows’ nod for Best Drama and Comedy respectively — except that I might have put “Grey’s” in the comedy category as well. A lady pregnant with twins by different fathers? A couple who the good docs have to forcibly UNCOUPLE after they try to have sex? Please, we’re not exactly talking Dr. Schweitzer-worthy drama here.
Meanwhile, the foreign critics demonstrated their well-established penchant for nominating “quirky” shows and performances. And by “quirky,” I mean get your mind out of the gutter, Globes. HBO’s bigamist series “Big Love” was kind of interesting at first, but once you get past the “Oh, wow, how does he figure out which of his three wives to sleep with each night?” theme, it’s pretty much just another show about a dysfunctional family . So’s “Brothers & Sisters,” when you get right down to it, and that ABC show is actually more fun to watch. PLUS you don’t have to pay for premium cable. But “Big Love” got all the love — best drama, best actor (Bill Paxton) — whereas “B&S” got shut out. The Globes should’ve liked, really liked Sally Field in the lead actress drama category over “Grey’s” Ellen Pompeo. Clearly Sally should spend more time in bed on “Brothers & Sisters.”
And please, enough with the Globes’ fawning over Mary Louise Parker and “Weeds.” We get it. It’s a show about grownups smoking pot in the suburbs. That’s soooo edgy. In, say, 1974.
The nominators must’ve been smoking something funny when they came up with this year’s “Best Series - Comedy or Musical” category. For starters, there’s the name. There aren’t any musical series that I can think of, except maybe for “American Idol.” Which is hilarious in its own right, especially during the audition episodes or whenever Paula Abdul opens her mouth. So where’s its nomination? Oh, that’s right, it had to go to “Weeds.” On the plus side, the delightful “Ugly Betty” got a nod, along with “Entourage” and “The Office,” making it this year’s most competitive, hippest race. The Serf would’ve liked to have seen ABC’s “Men In Trees” nominated here, but she guesses she should just be grateful that wonderful Anne Heche show is still on the air.
“Ugly Betty” star America Ferrerra also got a well-deserved nomination. In fact, you gotta give the Golden Globes grudging respect for acknowledging new shows and performers right out of the gate — unlike, say, the Emmys, which is still nominating “Everybody Loves Raymond” for awards years after it went off the air. It was lovely to see “Heroes” get nominations for Best Drama and Best Supporting Actor (the irresistible, irrepressible Masi Oka). And while Alec Baldwin isn’t a newcomer, his Jack Donaghy on “30 Rock” is one of the most unpredictably fun characters to come along in a long time and well-deserving of a Best Actor-Comedy nod.
Should “Heroes” have gotten more nominations? What about “Jericho” getting shut out? And should the nominating committee have someone else start their cars for awhile, what with “The Sopranos” and James Gandolfini getting ignored for Best Drama and Actor? Tell us what you think the Golden Globes got right or wrong.
