People: Public to Couric: Kiss off, Kate
One-third of Americans say they have a negative view of Katie Couric, with her personal popularity lagging behind rivals Charles Gibson and Brian Williams just as her evening news program trails in the ratings.
A new Gallup Poll shows that 51 percent of Americans have a positive view of Couric, who jumped from NBC’s “Today” show to the “CBS Evening News” last fall.
ABC’s Gibson was viewed positively by 62 percent and NBC’s Williams by 59 percent, but that difference is within the sampling’s margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.
Over the past three months, ABC’s “World News” had the most viewers during eight weeks, while NBC’s “Nightly News” won the other four.
Of those with a negative opinion of Couric, 29 percent said they simply “don’t like her.”
Once one of the most popular personalities in TV news, her negative ratings crept up during her final years at “Today.”
At least people know who she is. Only 13 percent of the respondents said they had never heard of Couric, compared to 19 percent each for Gibson and Williams.
They beg her pardon
Meanwhile, on the Paris Hilton beat:
“More than 900 signatures have been gathered for an online petition asking California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to pardon the hotel heiress, who was sentenced last week to 45 days in jail for violating her drunk driving probation by driving with a suspended license.
“Hilton has rehired publicist Elliot Mintz, whom she had blamed for telling her she could still drive for work-related purposes. He announced Sunday they had parted ways.
“The Resistance, a Christian group known for slamming celebrities such as 50 Cent and Jessica Simpson, plans to trash her CDs at Hilton Hotels around the country on June 5, the day her sentence is scheduled to begin.
It just hit him – wham!
British singer George Michael pleaded guilty Tuesday to a charge of driving while unfit through drugs, blaming it on “tiredness and prescribed drugs.”
Michael was arrested in October when police found him slumped over the wheel of his car, blocking an intersection in North London.
“It was fairly predictable considering how much work I had done that week,” he said.
More hassles for Hoff
A judge has suspended David Hasselhoff‘s visitation rights with his two teenage daughters after last week’s surfacing of a videotape showing the recovering alcoholic apparently intoxicated in his Las Vegas home.
“This videotape changes the landscape, it just does,” a Los Angeles Superior Court judge said.
The tape shows the former “Baywatch” star, wearing only blue jeans, lying on a floor and clumsily eating a hamburger while one of his daughters reproves him about his drinking.
The birthday bunch
CBS News correspondent Mike Wallace is 89. Actor Albert Finney is 71. Producer-director James L. Brooks (“The Simpsons,” “Mary Tyler Moore”) is 67. Singer Tommy Roe is 65. Actress Candice Bergen is 61. Singer Billy Joel is 58. Actor John Corbett is 46. Rapper Ghostface Killah (Wu-Tang Clan) is 37. Singer Tamia is 32. Actress Rosario Dawson is 28.