We’ll see how solo she can go
With co-host Matt Lauer bringing the tissues, the “Today” show threw a going-away party Wednesday for Katie Couric, who is leaving after 15 years to become the next anchor of the “CBS Evening News.”
“I’m feeling happy and sad and completely out of control,” Couric said, “and you know how much I like that.”
Her parents and two daughters were also in the audience for what Couric jokingly called the “celebration of moi.”
She recalled her first day on the job, when she was five months pregnant and still trying to decide whether to be identified as Katherine. “I got up, threw up and came to work,” she said.
At the end of three hours’ worth of tributes, Couric raised a glass of champagne and said: “To everyone in TV land, thanks so much.”
As for Lauer, she said: “I know I’ll never have a partner like you, because I won’t be working with a partner.”
Meredith Vieira of “The View” will take over as Couric’s “Today” successor in the fall.
Oh, forget about it
Elizabeth Taylor dismissed tabloid reports that she was being treated for Alzheimer’s disease or was gravely ill.
“Oh come on, do I look like I’m dying?” the 74-year-old actress, who uses a wheelchair because of back problems, said on CNN’s “Larry King Live” on Tuesday. “Do I look like or sound like I have Alzheimer’s?”
The National Enquirer claims Taylor is being treated for the early stages of the disease.
Lost in the crowd
Michelle Rodriguez was released from the Los Angeles County Jail after serving less than one day of a 60-day sentence because of overcrowded conditions.
The former “Lost” star was sentenced for violating probation from an L.A. drunk driving case after a similar arrest in Hawaii. She still must serve 30 days of community service and remain on probation until June 2009.
He’ll ‘Order’ out
Dennis Farina is turning in his “Law & Order” badge.
Farina has decided to leave his role as New York police Detective Joe Fontana after two seasons on the NBC drama.
He succeeded longtime series fixture Jerry Orbach, whose Detective Lennie Briscoe was featured in a “Law & Order” spinoff before Orbach’s death in 2004.
Just a pipe dream
Those rumors about an on-screen reunion of Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong? Reefer madness, Marin says.
Marin, 59 – half of the Cheech & Chong comedy duo that embodied 1970s and 1980s marijuana humor – said there will be no future joint efforts with Chong.
“We’ve tried to do it a bunch of times and we always end up at the same place,” he says. “All the old animosities resurface.”
The birthday bunch
Actor Andy Griffith is 80. Singer Pat Boone is 72. Actor Morgan Freeman is 69. Actor Rene Auberjonois (“Star Trek: Deep Space Nine”) is 66. Guitarist Ron Wood (the Rolling Stones) is 59. Actor Jonathan Pryce is 59. Country singer Ronnie Dunn (Brooks and Dunn) is 53. Actress Lisa Hartman Black is 50. Actress Teri Polo (“Meet The Parents”) is 37. Model Heidi Klum is 33. Singer Alanis Morissette is 32.