Tuesday, March 14, 2000

Read my polyps - Get cancer screenings, Couric says

Last week I took a ride up Katie Couric's colon. The plucky anchor, in a five-part cancer prevention series on NBC's "Today" show, underwent a colonoscopy on video and in vibrant living color.
   We were spared no detail. With camera rolling, Couric had to gulp down about a gallon of a colon-cleansing substance called "Go Lightly," which she revealed later doesn't begin to describe what it actually does.
   In an eight-minute segment, Couric was observed undergoing the procedure, which sends a tiny camera into the large intestine to look for cancerous polyps. "Is it in yet?" she asked the doctor, who assured her it was.
   Then we got the inside view. A little like zooming through the tunnel on the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland. Except slimier.
   The doctor told Couric her innards were "clean as a whistle."
   "I'm sure you all feel very close to me now," Couric said to viewers when it was over. And indeed we did, which is why this series was so good. Couric's putting herself in the story lent that "if she can do it, I can" aspect that will probably save some lives. Currently about 56,000 people a year die of colon and rectal cancers. But there is a 90 percent cure rate if the disease is detected early.
   Couric learned that the hard way. Her husband, NBC legal analyst Jay Monahan, died of colon cancer in 1998 at age 42. "Today" show producer Jeff Zucker has gone through surgery and treatment for the same disease.
   Couric's cancer crusade has landed her on the cover of Time magazine and taken her to testify before Congress. Being bold enough to give viewers a little peek of her interior served to bring an embarrassing topic out in the open.
   Gizzards with Liz
   Recently on ABC's "Good Morning America," actress Elizabeth Taylor talked to Diane Sawyer about her life as a star, an eight-time wife, recovering alcoholic and survivor of more than 30 surgeries, most recently operations for a brain tumor and hip replacements.
   The interview was surprisingly revealing.
   What does she hope to find in heaven?
   "Richard," she purred, referring to ex-husband Richard Burton, whom she married and divorced twice.
   Asked if she'd marry again, Taylor shrieked "Never!"
   Then she told Sawyer that at age 68, she couldn't even find a nice man to date. "I just want someone to go out to dinner with," Taylor pleaded, looking straight into the camera. "I'm not picky. Someone handsome, or just nice looking. Call me. I like Popeye's!"
   Whoa, Lizzy. Somehow I can't picture this Hollywood legend and some suave senior gent strolling into a fried chicken joint to split a box of livers and dirty rice.
   Looks like she's discovering what the rest of us in Single Hell already know: A good man is rarer than chicken's teeth.
   (Forward all offers of dates with Taylor to ABC, please.)
   Stern backs "Beach"
   Radio's biggest shock jock, Howard Stern, is the biggest name associated with a goofy new comedy series called "Son of the Beach," premiering at 9:30 tonight on cable's FX channel (AT&T channel 29). Stern serves as executive producer and script doctor for the show, a decidedly prurient and often borderline offensive spoof of "Baywatch."
   Tim Stack, who created the show, stars as Notch Johnson, a bald, soft-bellied, middle-aged lifeguard who often finds himself busting drug rings and arresting crime lords on the beaches of Malibu.
   Assisted by lifeguards B. J. Cummings and Chip Rommel, Johnson has to dodge the evil mayor, Anita Massengill, and her obnoxious son Cody (named by Stern for you-know-who's kid).
   The exec producer said he will not appear on the show, where almost everyone is clothed in tiny swimsuits. Said Stern, "You'd throw up if you saw me in the nude."
  
  
  
  

 
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