She recalled the night in May when, while watching TV, she learned of the Pakistan raid that resulted in the death of Osama bin Laden.
"I was pacing back and forth thinking 'I should be doing something. Why isn't my pager going off?' " she told the People Paper's Chuck Darrow. "You get the fire in the belly. It was odd."
Chen, who also hosts the Eye's "Big Brother" reality series, added that she can see herself being a Sunday-night newshound. "I wouldn't rule out if, 10 years from now, I got something on '60 Minutes.' It's always been a dream of mine to be a '60 Minutes' correspondent."
That probably wouldn't be too tough a nut for her to crack; she's married to CBS overlord Les Moonves.
TATTBITS
* CNN analyst
Roland Martin's suspension has been lifted.
Martin ran into trouble on the day after the Super Bowl when tweets he sent during the game raised the ire of gay organizations, including GLAAD.
During his suspension, Martin met with representatives of GLAAD. According to a statement from GLAAD, both "parties came away with a better understanding of one another and look forward to continuing this dialogue."
* Jennie Garth and Peter Facinelli are divorcing after 11 years.
The couple said they will still share "the same deep love and devotion to our children."
They are parents to 14-year-old Luca, 9-year-old Lola and 5-year-old Fiona.
* The legendary Apollo Theater in Harlem is exporting its Amateur Night to London for a July 14 engagement at London's Hackney Empire theater.
The Apollo said yesterday that Manhattan auditions will be held March 31 and April 1. Semifinals to pick four amateurs in London will be held in June.
Why fi?
A charitable marketing program that paid homeless people to carry Wi-Fi signals at South by Southwest has drawn widespread debate at the annual Austin conference and around the country.
BBH Labs gave 13 people from Austin's Front Steps Shelter mobile Wi-Fi devices and T-shirts that announced, "I am a 4G Hotspot." The company paid them $20 up front and a minimum of $50 a day for about six hours' work, said Emma Cookson, chairwoman of BBH New York.
She called the experiment a modernized version of homeless selling street newspapers. All of the money users paid for Wi-Fi - an often difficult thing to find at SXSW - went to the participants ($2 was the recommended donation for 15 minutes of use).
But many have called the program exploitive. Wired.com wrote that it "sounds like something out of a darkly satirical science-fiction dystopia." Technology blog ReadWriteWeb called it a "blunt display of unself-conscious gall."
Critics have claimed the experiment turned homeless people into inanimate objects for the benefit of well-heeled techies. In an online op-ed, the Washington Post wondered, "Have we lost our humanity?"
Seriously, if you have to ask that question, you haven't been paying attention.
- Daily News wire services
contributed to this report.
Email gensleh@phillynews.com.
