CNN's LOSS is CBS' election coverage gain: Veteran reporter and analyst Jeff Greenfield is leaving the cable news channel to work as senior political correspondent for CBS News.
Greenfield, who has been with CNN since 1998, worked at CBS News from 1979 to '83 as its media commentator. He begins his new job May 1, contributing to CBS' evening newscast and other programs.
He's known for his sharp political and media analysis, as well as his wry perspective on events.
"As we gear up for the 2008 elections, he will add even more depth and expertise to CBS News' political coverage," Sean McManus, president of CBS News and Sports, said.
Greenfield, who worked for ABC News from 1983 to '97, said he looked forward to being reunited with Paul Friedman and Rick Kaplan, one-time ABC colleagues now at CBS.
Kaplan, also a former CNN president, was recently named executive producer of Katie Couric's struggling "CBS Evening News" broadcast. Friedman is CBS News vice president.
During his tenure at CNN, Greenfield has served as lead analyst for its coverage of conventions, elections and Supreme Court confirmation hearings, and has reported on the media, culture and trends.
'Star' dust
Scotty's beaming all the way up.
The ashes of James Doohan, who played chief engineer Montgomery "Scotty" Scott on the original "Star Trek" TV series, have been loaded into a rocket that is set to launch in Las Cruces, N.M., later this month.
Also departing these earthly bounds are the late Mercury astronaut Gordon Cooper and some 200 others, thanks to Celestis, a Texas company that contracts with rocket firms to send cremated remains into space.
"And we're ready to go," Celestis chief exec Charles Chafer said after inserting the silver canister last week into a rocket owned by Aerospace Inc. of Connecticut that will be launched April 28.
Families paid $495 to have a few grams of their loved one's ashes placed on the rocket.
Chafer said he's aware of the dedication of "Star Trek" fans. "There's no doubt that we'll find a way to accommodate fans who travel here and want to be part of that experience," he said.
Doohan died in July 2005 at age 85. The remains of "Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry were blasted into space in 1997.
Dannielynn's daddies
We couldn't care less about Anna Nicole Smith's diary, what was in her refrigerator when she died or how many drugs she took on her last day. We don't even care, ultimately, who fathered her daughter, Dannielynn.
