Alycia Lane

Congratulations to former CBS 3 local anchor and one-time Daily News film critic ("Anchorman") Alycia Lane (left). Alycia, who now co-anchors "Today in L.A. " for NBC4, after some unpleasantness on the East Coast, won an Edward R. Murrow Award for writing a TV news story chronicling the effects of the rare genetic disorder Angelman Syndrome, a condition that affects one in 20,000 children. Alycia said she hoped that the award would draw attention to the syndrome.

About two hours after jury selection was to have begun, Common Pleas Court Judge Marlene Lachman announced Friday that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court had stayed the trial of the civil suit by Alycia Lane against her former coanchor Larry Mendte and their ex-employer, CBS, pending a ruling on a change-of-venue petition filed by the broadcaster. It could be weeks or months before the trial resumes - wherever it resumes. A spokesman for the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts would say only that "it's really unclear as to how long it will take.

IT'S NO LONGER such a hoot, is it? Gossiping about Alycia Lane and Larry Mendte is no longer fun now that serious accusations have overshadowed the giddy scandal. Mendte was fired Monday amid allegations that he illegally accessed Lane's e-mails and leaked them to the media to destroy her. Lane was fired six months ago and told her side of the story for the first time in a lawsuit filed against CBS 3 last week. And so it appears that while Lane was being publicly ridiculed, Mendte was the one who was allegedly behaving in a scurrilous, perhaps criminal, way. Lane, it appears, may have been a victim of character assassination, not of her own character flaws.

A Common Pleas Court judge last month struck down ex-CBS 3 anchor Alycia Lane's lawsuit against her former colleague Larry Mendte and bosses at CBS Broadcasting, but the legal battle wages on. Judge Matthew Carrafiello simply wanted a shorter version of the filing for the court to read. The judge ruled Dec. 1 that the complaint filed by Lane's lawyer Paul Rosen be "stricken," according to court documents that the Daily News recently obtained. "The court finds the complaint fails to state facts in a 'concise and summary form,' " according to notes handwritten on the court order.

News item: CBS3 anchor Alycia Lane tried to call Gov. Rendell last Sunday during an Eagles-Cowboys game to "tell her side of the story" of her encounter with a New York City cop. She didn't get through until Monday. But what if she had? Governor: Hello? Lane: Hi, governor! It's your favorite hottie TV news woman! Governor: Leslie? Lane: Guess again. Governor: Cecily? Erin? Lane: No, it's Alycia, governor. A-l-y-c-i-a. Governor: Alycia! Can you hang on a minute, sweetheart?

The legal wrangling between former CBS 3 anchor Alycia Lane and the TV station may head into overdrive today when the star plaintiff is expected in the city for her deposition, a key step in her civil lawsuit against her former bosses. But CBS Broadcasting, the parent company of CBS 3, is looking beyond the two-day deposition, which begins at 10 a.m. at an undisclosed Center City location. The company has filed two motions - one to dismiss the suit and the second to compel Lane, 38, to have a mental evaluation and turn over all her mental-health records.

For Alycia Lane, the future comes down to trust. Can the anchorwoman fired on Monday by CBS3 after allegedly assaulting a New York police officer last month still get a TV news audience to take her seriously? If she can sustain her credibility through this public relations maelstrom, she will in all likelihood continue to work as a newswoman, if not in this market, then in another. And if she can't? "I don't think Fox is still doing celebrity boxing," said Robert Thompson, professor of television, radio and film at Syracuse University's S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.

One morning in February, a CBS3 employee sat down at a computer shared by newsroom staffers. When the employee wiggled the mouse to "wake" the idle monitor, it became clear that the previous user had forgotten to log out of a Yahoo e-mail account. The employee did a double-take: The e-mail account was registered to Alycia Lane - who had been fired as anchor six weeks before. And yet, someone at CBS3 seemed to be reading Lane's personal e-mail. According to sources close to the case, who recounted this version of events, the discovery ultimately triggered an FBI investigation in which Lane's former coanchor, Larry Mendte, has emerged as the prime suspect.

Alycia Lane, fired yesterday from CBS3, is likely to fire back in court. The anchor, accused of assaulting a plainclothes policewoman in a middle-of-the-night encounter three weeks ago on a New York City street, received no severance from the station, where she had coanchored the 6 and 11 p.m. news since arriving from Miami in September 2003. Last week, after the station made it clear that her contract would be terminated, Lane hired Philadelphia attorney Paul Rosen to represent her in what's expected to be a breach-of-contract suit for what Rosen yesterday called the station's "unfair" and "unwarranted" move.

SHE STILL won't talk about it publicly. Not in court. Not to the media. Alycia Lane is still that traumatized by what was done to her by former co-anchor Larry Mendte - who purported to be her mentor and friend while pursuing a sadistic smear campaign against her. And who could blame her? A day after Mendte was sentenced in federal court for hacking into her personal e-mails hundreds of times, Lane's lawyer and sources close to her said that the damage Mendte did to her is inestimable.

TO DAWN Stensland: Buzz Bissinger's column concerned a trial about the invasion of privacy your husband pulled on a co-worker that made Alycia Lane headline gossip fodder and eventually destroyed her career. What does that have to do with the run-in with police she had months after that? Lane may not be the most sympathetic victim around, but please don't try to skew the facts, because we all know who the bad guy is. Dave Arne, Pennsauken

JUST READ columnist Buzz Bissinger's rant in the May 20 issue about Larry Mendte and how he demolished the career of poor Alycia Lane, his ex-CBS 3 colleague. Buzz never mentions that Larry wouldn't be in this mess if there weren't noble journalists like Daily News columnist Dan Gross eager to type every salacious Lane detail that Mendte funneled his way. We're also supposed to admire Bissinger's candid disclosure that Lane's a saintly good friend whom he considers funny, sassy and bright.

THE FIRST thing that strikes you when you watch the deposition of New York City Police Officer Bernadette Enchautegui is that she is as beautiful as she is credible. The young policewoman with movie-star looks is the officer who says that an intoxicated Alycia Lane "clawed" her face in the middle of a New York City street just before Christmas 2007. I thought of Bernadette and other women, like me, who feel victimized by Alycia Lane, when I read Buzz Bissinger's attack on my husband, Larry Mendte: a blatant attempt to pollute potential jurors on the first day of jury selection in the civil suit filed by Buzz's "friend" against CBS and Larry.

About two hours after jury selection was to have begun, Common Pleas Court Judge Marlene Lachman announced Friday that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court had stayed the trial of the civil suit by Alycia Lane against her former coanchor Larry Mendte and their ex-employer, CBS, pending a ruling on a change-of-venue petition filed by the broadcaster. It could be weeks or months before the trial resumes - wherever it resumes. A spokesman for the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts would say only that "it's really unclear as to how long it will take.

About two hours after jury selection was to have begun, Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge Marlene Lachman announced Friday that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has stayed the trial on the civil suit filed by Alycia Lane against her former coanchor Larry Mendte and their ex-employer, CBS, pending a ruling on a change of venue petition filed by the broadcaster. It could be weeks or months before the trial resumes - wherever it resumes. A spokesman for the Administrative Office of the Pennsylvania Courts would say only that "it's really unclear as to how long it will take.

SIX WEEKS AGO, when I heard that Curt Weldon and Larry Mendte, the dumb and dumber of politics and the media, had taken it upon themselves to negotiate with Moammar Gadhafi, I knew that Christmas had come early. The very image of these two washed-up wackos traipsing around Tripoli was too good to be true. I could just envision Mendte getting all giddy as they neared the presidential palace: "Curt. That's him! We found him!" "Uh, Larry, that's just a statue. " "I'm gonna ask him about the Phillies.

Congratulations to former CBS 3 local anchor and one-time Daily News film critic ("Anchorman") Alycia Lane (left). Alycia, who now co-anchors "Today in L.A. " for NBC4, after some unpleasantness on the East Coast, won an Edward R. Murrow Award for writing a TV news story chronicling the effects of the rare genetic disorder Angelman Syndrome, a condition that affects one in 20,000 children. Alycia said she hoped that the award would draw attention to the syndrome.

VETERAN newscaster Larry Mendte was back in the spotlight this week after a tabloid reported on juicy details that have emerged from former co-anchor Alycia Lane's civil lawsuit against him and CBS Broadcasting. Tiffany jewelry and bras without blouses were some of the tidbits revealed in the broadcasters' depositions. But from where Mendte stands in Tripoli, Libya - reporting on former U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon's attempts to broker a deal with Moammar Gadhafi - the media frenzy back home "seems so trite," he said by phone yesterday.

Quick - how much do you make? We write "SideShow" for free. We don't make anything. OK, the occasional jalapeño banana radish fudge Tastykake or half-eaten pretzel. But - some people make lots . Take Alycia Lane , former Philly news anchor now in L.A. She's embroiled in a civil lawsuit against (among others) former colleague and e-mail peruser Larry Mendte . Amid the hundreds of pages of her deposition is a factoid not often confirmed in the world of TV news: her salary.

Quick - how much do you make? We write SideShow for free. We don't make anything. OK, the occasional jalapeño banana radish fudge Tastykake or half-eaten pretzel. But . . . some people make lots. Take Alycia Lane , the former Philly news anchor now in L.A. We know how much she made once upon a time. She's embroiled in a verrry interesting civil lawsuit against (among others) former colleague and e-mail peruser Larry Mendte . Amid the hundreds of pages of her deposition is a factoid not often confirmed in the world of TV news: her salary.