Moyers Trims Schedule At Nbc Commentator Plans To Focus On Completing Heart-Fitness Program

Bad news, Bill Moyers fans. You’ll be seeing less of the thoughtful commentator.

In a memo to the staff Wednesday, NBC News boss Andy Lack said Moyers would reduce his commitments to the network for the next three months because of health concerns.

Moyers, 60, who underwent heartbypass surgery in May 1993, will enter an intensive cardiac-fitness program.

Moyers’ twice-a-week commentaries on Tom Brokaw’s “NBC Nightly News,” which began in February, will now air on an occasional basis. (His last piece ran last Friday.) He will continue with other NBC News shows, including Tim Russert’s “Meet the Press.”

“Call it hubris, denial or just the obsession to work, I deceived myself,” Moyers wrote in a memo to Lack. “For some time now, I have been experiencing many of the symptoms that occurred prior to the surgery.”

Two weeks ago, Moyers underwent tests and was advised to begin the cardiac program.

Moyers intends to complete the program, designed to reverse heart disease without surgery or drugs.

Ginger Rogers VCR alert

As a tribute to Ginger Rogers, who died Tuesday at 83, cable’s Turner Classic Movies will devote a third of its Sunday schedule to the legendary actress.

TCM will present four classic Rogers films, beginning at 9 a.m. with “Top Hat” (1935), co-starring Fred Astaire. At 11 a.m. is “Bachelor Mother” (1939), with David Niven, followed at 12:30 by “The Barkleys of Broadway” (1949), the final film pairing of Fred and Ginger and the duo’s first color flick.

“The First Traveling Saleslady” (1956), with Carol Channing and Clint Eastwood, is at 2:25.

‘So-Called’ on life support

The death watch continues for “My So-Called Life.”

Despite a groundswell of fan support and new life on MTV, the struggling ABC coming-of-age drama is a long shot to make the fall lineup, says co-executive producer Marshall Herskovitz. The network will decide “Life’s” fate by midMay.

“I’d say it’s 60-40 against us being renewed,” says Herskovitz. “This show has been so near death for so long in so many ways, we’re used to it. We’re fatalistic about it.

“We waited 18 months to get on the air at all. ABC ordered episodes in dribs and drabs.

“If it dies, it dies. We’ll be sad. If ABC orders more episodes, we’ll be ecstatic. Either way, nobody will be shocked or go into mourning.”

MTV recently began running repeats of “Life,” starring extraordinary newcomer Claire Danes, at 7 p.m. weekdays. All 19 episodes will air.

Getting exposure for the freshman series “keeps us in the media’s eye and proves, once again, there’s real interest in the show,” Herskovitz says.

Halle Berry gets million

Halle Berry is about to become one of the highest-paid black actresses in America. Berry’s representatives are close to concluding a deal that will bring her $1 million to star in Joel Silver’s action-thriller “Executive Decision,” sources said. Kurt Russell also stars in the film.

Berry most recently starred opposite Jessica Lange in “Losing Isaiah” and the TV movie “Solomon and Sheba.”

“Executive Decision” is expected to roll June 1.

Berry also starred in the David Wolper-produced “Roots” sequel, “Queen.” Her other credits include “The Flintstones,” “Boomerang,” “The Last Boy Scout,” “Fatherhood,” and “The Program.”

New Alcott book to be film

Louisa May Alcott’s “The Long Fatal Love Chase,” based on a recently discovered manuscript, will become a four-hour miniseries for NBC.

To be published by Random House in September, “Chase” is the romantic and suspenseful adventure of an innocent young woman who, betrayed in her marriage to a dashing older man, becomes the object of an obsessive hunt when she travels the continent in an effort to elude him.

The manuscript of “The Long Fatal Love Chase” was discovered in a New York bookstore last year by Kent Bicknell, a collector of works by the famed 19th century author of “Little Women.” About “Chase,” the book’s Random House editor Ann Godoff said, “This is about obsessive love. Nothing could be more current.”

Gibbons leaving ‘ET’

There’s good news and bad news for Leeza Gibbons fans out there. The bad news is that, after a decade on the job, she’ll be leaving her post as weekend anchor of “Entertainment Tonight.” She’s doing so, she says, to allow her more time with her family.

The good news is that her NBC daytime chat show, “Leeza,” has been renewed for another year and that she plans to devote more time to that program.

Gibbons says she enjoyed both jobs, but didn’t feel it left her enough time to raise her two young children and that when push came to shove, they were definitely a top priority.

Now that NBC has given her own show a vote of confidence, she says, it gave her the guts to leave “ET” behind and start a new chapter in her life. She’ll remain a contributor to the entertainment news magazine but only on an occasional basis.