I was never a big fan of Dharma & Greg (and by "never a big fan" I mean "I really disliked it"), but I'll give Jenna Elfman's new sitcom a shot. It's about a thirtysomething film critic who gets pregnant after a one-night stand. Family and parents groups, you can open your e-mail programs right now if you want to get your media campaign to get this show canceled underway early. Here's a sneak peek at the show.

If you watch ESPN's daily round table sport talk show, Around the Horn, you know that Jay Mariotti is a columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times. Or I should say, he was a columnist. Right after the Beijing Olympics, Mariotti returned to the show and all the other reporters -- and host Tony Reali -- kept zinging Jay about not being with the Chicago Sun-Times anymore. At no point did they explain that Mariotti was not fired from his post, he quit.

Then I discovered that a fellow Sun-Times employee, and former TV star himself (At the Movies with Ebert & Roeper), film critic Roger Ebert, was ticked off with Mariotti. Specifically, Ebert reviewed the way Jay chose to walk away from his job. Ebert pointed out that Mariotti had screwed his editors at the Sun-Times by signing a new contract, going to China on their dime (which was actually thousands of dollars), then left the job with a cold e-mail that said simply, "I quit."

I guess Mariotti felt like the newspaper could dump him with an equally cold, "You're fired," but common courtesy suggests that he should have given two-week notice. Or maybe that kind of courtesy is as outmoded a concept as saying thank you for service or holding the door for someone else?

Rod Lurie is no stranger to writing strong female characters. In film, he wrote and directed The Contender, with Joan Allen as a woman who was being considered for the Vice Presidency of the United States.

Then with Commander in Chief on ABC, he made Geena Davis the President and actually showed her in action -- until the show was canceled.

Lurie's working on another female-driven drama now for Showtime, but this time it's not about politics. Hillary Jones is the name of the show and the character, a police detective working vice in Los Angeles during the week, but moonlighting as a hooker in Nevada during the weekend.

She's not breaking the law, though, because prostitution -- as you and I know from the movies -- is legal there.

Movie critic Roger Ebert is still recovering from surgery he had in June to remove a cancerous growth on his salivary gland and then emergency surgery he had in July when a blood vessel burst. Ebert published a letter in Thursday's Chicago Sun-Times saying that he hopes to be back at work (at the paper and on television) in time for the Oscars and the Cannes Film Festival. He also said he plans to review The Queen, starring Helen Mirren, in this Friday's newspaper since a producer managed to get him a DVD copy of the film.

Since Ebert left his television show, Richard Roeper has hosted various guest film critics including Kevin Smith and Jay Leno. This week's co-host is A.O. Scott, a reviewer for the New York Times.