Talk Shows

The strike by the Writers Guild of America ended not a moment too soon for Jay Leno. After 100 days, the guests were wearing thin. Larry the Cable Guy made his fourth appearance just this week on NBC's "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno." Animal ambassador Joan Embery -- the sixth animal act in as many weeks -- dropped by with another passel of critters.

With the Bush administration taking a pounding over erroneous prewar claims about Iraq in the summer of 2003, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff consulted his office's top communications advisor on how to strike back. As they talked by phone, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby scribbled down a series of Machiavellian suggestions from Cheney's then-communications guru, Mary Matalin: What to do about MSNBC talk show host Chris Matthews and his steady barrage of Iraq war criticism?

Fans of liberal talk radio were no doubt baffled in recent weeks by the decision by KTLK-AM (1150) to relegate its popular midday personality Ed Schultz to the lesser time slot of weekday evenings and replacing him with a host with a lower national profile. But while listeners may be puzzled, Schultz himself thinks there's a conspiracy at work, one involving "progressive talk" station KTLK and struggling liberal radio network Air America. "It's not a radio decision," Schultz said by phone.

THERE are actually guests every day on "The View." And no doubt a few people tune in for the chance to see John Lithgow or Lorraine Bracco. But most "View"-ers are there for the ladies -- Barbara Walters, Joy Behar, Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Rosie O'Donnell. Especially Rosie O'Donnell.

Star Jones arrived in the ballroom Sunday morning without her husband's last name and without answers to the Most Pressing Question of the day: Star, where is the rest of you? Jones was promoting her new Court TV (which will become TruTV in January) talk show, which begins airing daily at 3 p.m. Aug. 20. She looked happy, her hair in a bob and her new petite bod in a fitted gray dress.

Here's a shocking revelation. People on talk shows used to talk. Not ram through gags, not blow hype smoke, not rant and shout, not reveal baby-daddies or body parts. Talk. In normal tones of voice. About real, authentic, sometimes intimate, sometimes consequential stuff. Yes! Really! Tom Snyder's passing last week deprives us of one of the best representatives of the conversational art.

It has not been easy for Mike Huckabee to stand out in the crowd of White House contenders, as he is quick to admit. "There are a lot of dogs at the same dish trying to eat a limited amount of food," he told CBS this week. The former Arkansas governor has long ranked as an afterthought, if that, in a contest dominated by better-known candidates. But his second-place finish in a Republican straw poll in Iowa last weekend has spawned a burst of media attention.

"My first guest tonight is a candidate for president of the United States . . . " is a refrain already echoing across the late-night talk show battlefield.

Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton don't have to scramble for national publicity; it flows to them. On Tuesday and again today, the couple demonstrates the raw power of celebrity, with scheduled appearances on five national television shows just as the Democratic presidential primary race enters its most competitive stage.

new york -- It was another hectic day on the campaign trail for Sen. Barack Obama. A last-minute Senate vote Thursday forced him to truncate a swing through Manhattan and make an unscheduled trip to Washington. Afterward, he raced back to New York for a late-afternoon rally with thousands of supporters in Washington Square Park and the requisite fundraiser.