TVSquad

• Claudia Cohen: She was one of the more famous gossip columnists, and had a regular spot on both Live with Regis and Kathie Lee and Live with Regis and Kelly, as well guest spots on Curb Your Enthusiasm and ESPN. She got her start writing for The New York Post also wrote the "I, Claudia" column for The New York Daily News. Cohen died last Saturday of complications from stomach cancer that was first diagnosed six years ago.

That's the opinion of New York Post columnist Cindy Adams.

Besides the hype and media attention and marketing mistakes made by CBS, Adams thinks that it's Couric's voice is turning off viewers. That regular network news viewers want the stronger, deeper voice of a male anchor like Charles Gibson or Brian Williams.

With the series finale of HBO's The Sopranos fast approaching (a week from this Sunday, to be exact) speculation is running wild as to what's going to become of Tony Soprano and his companions. The biggest question is whether or not Tony will alive or dead when the final credits role.

Michael Starr of the New York Post is betting that we'll know something about the series finale after the next-to-last episode airs this Sunday. Starr believes that this week's episode could be the one that features a final battle between Tony and his enemies, while the last episode could be the one that ties everything up in a tidy package, leaving Tony alive and kicking. Few clues are being given in episode description. For example, for this week's episode, "The Blue Comet", HBO writes 'The allegiance of those closest to Tony is put to the test and a case of mistaken identity has serious ramifications.' Not much to decipher from that notice, is there?

Its also been reported that show creator David Chase, who co-wrote this Sunday's episode and wrote and directed the series finale, has filmed several endings to The Sopranos to throw everyone off as to the fate of Tony. My guess is that Tony will wake up from a dream and Suzanne Pleshette will be there in bed next to him. Hey, it worked before!

Remember that Saturday Night Live sketch earlier this season, the one where they depicted a master acting class that prepared actors for bit roles on Law and Order? I thought of that after reading this.

The article points out that Law and Order has been quite a goldmine for actors who live and work in New York City. Most prime time shows are filmed in California, so to have a long-running show cast and filmed on the East Coast was an incredible thing for struggling actors trying to get a break into television and more established actors who prefer to live in NYC than LA. But now if it's canceled, that outlet might dry up (even if Law and Order: SVU is safe). As one actor points out, you can do several Broadway shows but if people can see you on just one TV show it's even bigger.

I guess actors can try out for soap operas and 30 Rock, but it's not the same.

A while back I called Anderson Cooper "The Four Million Dollar Man." Looks like we're going to have to call him something else.

CNN has just given the anchor of Anderson Cooper 360 a big increase in pay. Cooper will be paid $50 million over the next five years. Yes, that's 5-0. That comes out to be $10 million a year, but it's up to you whether you want to call Coop "The 50 Million Dollar Man" or "The 10 Million Dollar Man."

So readers, is he worth it? It's really hard to judge whether one person is "worth" the amount of money they are given, whether it's Michael Jordan, Julia Roberts, or Anderson Cooper. But Cooper does indeed seem to be the future of CNN, the "face" of the network, if you will, and it looks like they want to lock him in for a long time to come.

Cooper hosts his nightly show at 10pm and also contributes to 60 Minutes over on CBS.

The New York Post is reporting that Bravo is editing all of comedian Kathy Griffin's standup specials, because she makes several jokes about Anna Nicole Smith on them.

I actually thought of this when Anna Nicole died, how Kathy Griffin used to joke about Anna Nicole's reality show (and the fact that it would cause Daniel to go into rehab - ouch), how Anna Nicole acted, how she seemed when both of them were guests on The Hollywood Squares. It must be odd when a major part of your act actually dies, tragically and young, and you can't use that material anymore. I'm sure some comedians would still do it, but Griffin doesn't want to because she's genuinely sad about what happened.

Griffin just finished a new special for Bravo titled Everyone Can Suck It.

[via TV Tattle]

I haven't seen Rita Cosby on MSNBC in several weeks. Not that I've really noticed, because I try to avoid her whenever possible. It's the voice. Yeah, sorry, no offense, but I just can't stand listening to her raspy voice. But now the NY Post is reporting that, after a three week vacation, the rasp is gone!

Supposedly, the three week break was an "enforced" vacation, and besides the rest that she got, Cosby won't go into details on what she did to change her voice. I'm assuming she didn't go through puberty, like that episode of The Brady Bunch where Peter's voice changed.

Can any TV Squad readers confirm this? I'm going to check MSNBC to see if she's on today.

[via TV Newser]

I was watching comedian Kathy Griffin on Larry King Live a few weeks ago, and I remember thinking, why is she on this show? Beyond the publicity, why is she on the show of someone she would usually dump on or say funny, nasty things about? And yes, I'm aware that's a terrible sentence, but you can see my point. Larry King seems like someone Griffin would insult or pick on, not appear on his show.

But now comes word that Griffin dumped on King an interview at the L.A. Gay and Lesbian Center last week. She says that King is either deaf or doesn't listen: