new york times

What, Eddie Haskell suing someone isn't enough for you today? OK, how about this: former CBS anchor Dan Rather is suing CBS for $70 million. Also named in the suit are CBS CEO Les Moonves, Sumner Redstone, and former CBS news chief Andrew Heyward.

The lawsuit claims that the network forced him to step down from The CBS Evening News and did not give him enough time on 60 Minutes. He also claims that because of all this, the network aired a "biased" and "incomplete" investigation into the National Guard story and seriously hurt his reputation. New York Times reporter Jacques Steinberg broke the story earlier this afternoon. Rather is currently an anchor on HDNet.

Now let's see if Katie Couric (or Harry Smith, if he's still filling in) reports this story on tonight's show.

It's a typical night in Moscow. You have just finished supper and are now ready to sit down with your wife, children, parents, aunts, uncles, and cousins to watch some television. On the screen a sad-faced shoe salesman is anchored to his living room couch watching his own TV. Strutting behind him is his gaudily-dressed, shockingly red-haired wife. To the side his ditsy blonde-haired daughter and fairly intelligent son, who dreams of something bigger in his life, bicker over something or other.

Sounds a bit like Married... With Children, doesn't it? Well, truth be told, it actually is. The name of the show is Schastlivy Vmeste (translated to Happy Together) and it is an authorized copy of the former FOX sitcom featuring Russian cast members and dialog. It is also a huge hit in Russia, especially among younger viewers. According to a spokesperson for Russian channel TNT, Vmeste is the most popular scripted series among the 18 to 30 crowd.

Writing is one of the oddest professions. A lot of people just don't get what we do, why we do it, how we do it, or what we get paid. I've encountered countless numbers of people who think that I'm rich because I'm a writer and "that lady J.K. Rowling is a writer and she's rich!" or they think I shouldn't get paid that much because "writing is easy and fun" or some other sort of logic.

Brookes Barnes doesn't get it either. He has an op-ed piece in the New York Times this week about the latest negotiations between the WGA and the AMPTP. TV and film writers want a piece of the DVD sales pie. Barnes seems to think that they're asking for too much because...well, I'll let Barnes explain it himself, in his opening paragraph:

This review confused me for a moment. New York Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni gives Perilla, the restaurant owned by first season Top Chef winner Harold Dieterle, one star out of four. Now, if you're talking about movies or TV shows or albums, that's probably the "poor" category. But the way Bruni and the Times do it, it actually stands for "good" (if you get zero stars or just get a "satisfactory" rating, that's a bad thing). I wonder what four stars means? Best meal in the history of the universe?

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.

Fun Q & A with Entourage creator Doug Ellin in the New York Times. They touch on everything from what it was like growing up on Long Island, how much money he makes at HBO, and his irritation at how people nowadays want a quick "home run" in their career instead of working hard for success.

He also has a lot of interesting things to say about the four main characters on the show. HBO originally considered the show a satire, but Ellin had to convince them that it's actually reality and he knows people like this. It's how he perceives friendship and how it was when he was growing up.

He also says that he'd kill himself if his own kids grew up to be like Vince or Drama or Turtle or Eric, so I guess even friendship has its limits. Entourage returns for another season June 17.

When I watch 24, I don't expect to see depictions of families trying to figure out whether it's time to bring the minivan in for service. I'm not expecting to see characters drinking copious amounts of java while revealing their angst to one another. That's what Grey's Anatomy is for.

I watch 24 for its depiction of counter-terrorism and of what U.S. agents might face when trying to protect the country, as well as for its dramatization of the political implications of fighting stateless bands of terrorists. Plus it's fun to watch Jack Bauer kick some bad guy behind. So why in the world would a New York Times critic assail 24 for being anti-family and for the fact that the program doesn't demonstrate "ordinary social intercourse?"

So why have the ratings for the CBS Evening News fallen to historic lows? The New York Times asks that question today and suggests two theories: Either viewers don't like Katie Couric, or they're just uncomfortable getting their network news from a woman (the fact that there are female anchors in the cable news world isn't mentioned).

While the newspaper noted that Couric has received criticism for everything from her makeup (too much or too little) to her interview style (too soft or too hard), Sean McManus, CBS News president told the Times, "There is a percentage of people out there that probably prefers not to get their news from a woman." (Remember how much flak she endured from people who obsessed over her debut outfit?)