TVSquad

The April 4, 2007 entry on the "Couric and Co." blog on the CBS News site no longer includes a video essay on libraries, but rather an apology for omitting credit to a March 15 article in the Wall Street Journal titled "Of the Places You'll Go, Is the Library Still One of Them?" by Jeffrey Zaslow.

The blog contains video essays written by producers of the CBS Evening News and read by anchorperson Katie Couric and other contributors to the newscast. The producer who wrote the copy for this particular episode did not credit Zaslow's article, and was subsequently fired. Sandra Genelius, a spokesperson for CBS News, said the content was almost completely taken from the Wall Street Journal piece. The name of the fired producer was not released.

CBS became aware of the incident when an editor from the Wall Street Journal called to note the similarities between the article and the online video essay.

Bob Odenkirk, actor and comedian whom most of us know from Mr. Show, a sketch comedy series that ranks up there with Monty Python's Flying Circus and The Kids in the Hall as one of the best of all time, wants everyone to know his plastic surgery went just fine. Yes, he did have a chin lift and a lip curl, and he also had his eyes transferred from his face to the palms of his hands, but it was all part of the full package. Oddly enough, he wound up looking not unlike one of the creatures from the movie Pan's Labyrinth. His goal, however, is to look like George Clooney in The Good German. I'd say he's over half way there. Also, it's not the worst plastic surgery job I've ever seen.

Rumor has it that The Daily Show's Jon Stewart is in talks with the Washington Post to provide online content for the Post's 2008 election coverage. Neither Comedy Central nor the WashingtonPost.com's editor would confirm the story. As Daily Show followers may remember, Indecision 2004 was released as a DVD and garnered the show's writers and correspondents tremendous critical acclaim. Stewart's deal with the Post would have him providing written, not video, content to the site. It would be a huge coup for the paper and would make it much more difficult for Stewart to maintain his apolitical, "I'm an entertainer; I don't influence the news" claim.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, which first aired in 1966, one year after A Charlie Brown Christmas made its debut. To celebrate, United Feature Syndicate, Inc., the company that distributed the Peanuts comic strip, is sponsoring an essay contest where people can write about their worst Halloween experience ever. If, you know, you can think of something worse than spending the night in a pumpkin patch only to be greeted by a beagle dressed as a World War I pilot. The deadline for the essays, which must be more than 500 words and less than 600, is July 21. Winners will be chosen by members of Charles Schulz's family, as well as his partners on the Peanuts animated specials, Lee Mendelson and Bill Melendez. Peter Robbins, the first kid to voice Charlie Brown, will also be a judge. Winners will receive lots of Peanuts-related stuff, plus a trip to the Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center in Santa Rosa, California. You can learn more about the contest here.

Ever wanted to know what life is like as a "That Guy" in Hollywood? You know who I'm talking about; he's one of those actors that you seem to see as a guest actor on every TV show that's on the air, but you wouldn't recognize his name if you were just looking at the episode listing in IMDb. It must be an odd life; you're on TV or in movies, and you're making enough money at acting to be comfortably middle-class, but no one outside a casting office knows who you are and everyone tells you that your destined for bigger and better things but it never seems to happen.

Peter Birkenhead is one of those "That Guys", and he gives Salon readers a little insight into what his life is like in an essay that was posted to the site on Saturday (if you're not a subscriber, you'll need to watch a short ad before viewing the entire essay, but the effort is worth it). It's funny and a little introspective, and if you're an aspiring Hollywood actor, it'll give you some pause, especially when he tells the story of how he finally got a recurring role on Becker (yeah, I know), only to have the part axed after four episodes.

Oh, and here's an indication of how anonymous Birkenhead is: I had to crib this photo from Salon because I only found three pictures of him, and they were all group shots. That's on the entire Internet, folks. I think there are more pictures of me out there than Peter.