mediabistro

Even though the sudden pull out from several sponsors hasn't caused Fox to prematurely eject Glenn Beck from his time slot, he was suspiciously absent from the airwaves this week.

Some suggest this Beck-free week wasn't just a much needed vacation for the host, or for the viewer for that matter.

TVNewser spoke to some Fox insiders who claim the network ordered the silver haired devil to take a week off so some of the heat over his advertising boycott could die down.

Lots of changes this week in the land of TV news:

• Liz Claman is leaving CNBC. She was going to renew her contract, but decided she wanted to go some place else. She has to wait 90 days, however, because of a non-compete clause in her contract. She's been with the financial network for almost 10 years. I remember Claman from her days on Channel 7 in Boston.

MediaBistro is reporting that E! True Hollywood Story may be going the way of a drug-addled former child star -- down the slow slide into oblivion.

E! is cutting 15 staff jobs and paring down the program -- having ordered only 21 episodes, less than half the typical order, for the year. I, of course, didn't realize that there were more than 50 original episodes of the show ordered every year. For some reason, I only catch the Blossom one.

While no one likes to see anyone lose their job, I'm sure E! will find a new way to edit together clips of pop culture detritus for our consumption.

The former Ed and Stella star is an editor-at-large at the new relaunced Cracked mag, which is going for the hearts and minds of twentysomething guys and not the kids. Mediabistro talked to Black about Stella, how he got the Cracked gig, and what the status is on a State movie (hint: it has something to do with iTunes).

They don't ask him about his appearances on Celebrity Poker Showdown though, which is too bad, since he's been one of the better players on the show. But I guess there's really not much you can ask about that. "So, you're a good poker player, eh?" or "Boy, such-and-such is really a moron, aren't they?"