Through the Wire

Contributors: Linda Haugsted, Ted Hearn.

Word Up — Could You Spell 'Pakapoo?’

Every year, during “Diversity Week,” cable people buy tickets to a Broadway show as a benefit for Cable Positive. This year it was The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, a musical that involves some audience participation. Four people are picked before the show to join the cast onstage, feed a few straight lines and spell a few words.

As luck would have it, two cable folks were tapped during last Tuesday’s performance: Shelly Good-Cook, membership marketing director at the Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing, and Sundance Channel CEO Larry Aidem. The others included a boy about 9 or 10 years old who gave several correct answers and was the last audience member escorted off the stage.

When it came time to step up to the podium and field their words, the volunteers had to put up with some joke introductions. Such as, “Miss Good-Cook placed second in her local contest to Miss Great-Cook.” And Larry Aidem was said to have won an “I sort of remind people of Kevin Kline contest.”

Things weren’t so even when it came to spelling, though. Good-Cook spelled “jihad” right. Aidem got “pakapoo” — a Chinese game of chance — and wasn’t so fortunate.

At the cocktail reception before the Kaitz Foundation dinner the next night, you didn’t have to stand near Aidem long to see his pals come up and give him grief. “I’ve been getting this all day,” Aidem said, also using the phrase, “Can you spell illiterate?”

Best of all, he confessed he’d seen the play before, when it was off Broadway! Oh well.

By Thursday, the shock and embarrassment apparently had worn off. Aidem emailed The Wire: “My elimination from 'the Bee’ on my very first word was, initially, a terrible blow to my self esteem and already fragile ego. However, after the play, I tracked down that cute little, overly brainy kid and beat the living crap out of him. I’m now feeling much better.”

We’re all glad to hear it.

To Rose-Backing Stevens, Rehr Isn’t So Well Done

Senate Commerce Committee chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) isn’t hiding his displeasure that former aide Mitch Rose is apparently losing the race to become the next president of the National Association of Broadcasters.

According to industry and Capitol Hill sources, the NAB search committee is supporting David Rehr, president of the National Beer Wholesalers Association, over Rose, a lobbyist for The Walt Disney Co. whom Stevens considers part of his political family.

A few on Capitol Hill are mystified that NAB would turn to a “beer guy” when Rose has the media policy smarts and Senate connections that extend beyond Stevens.

“Mitch knows the issues, he knows the players, he knows committee staff, he knows the senators well,” said one aide to a Commerce Committee Republican. “I think he would be exactly what NAB would need at this time.”

If selected, Rehr would step into the shoes of longtime NAB president Edward Fritts, who announced his resignation in February.

The NAB is going through a leadership change at a critical moment. In October, Congress is likely to set a firm date to take back broadcasters’ analog spectrum and consider granting TV stations multicast must-carry rights on cable systems.

Why the NAB would pick a media-policy rookie over an experienced Stevens insider like Rose at such a critical time is baffling to Stevens people. “We would have to explain to him what the issues were,” said Lisa Sutherland, staff director of the Senate Commerce Committee, adding that the NAB needed a leader now who wouldn’t need “on the job training.”

NAB spokesman Dennis Wharton declined to comment.

The NAB is counting on Stevens to help in the multicast must-carry fight. House Energy and Commerce Committee chairman Joe Barton (R-Texas) sides with cable that a TV station is entitled to carriage of just one programming service, not five or six digital channels that today can fit in a 6 MHz channel.

Stevens has said cable ought to carry multicast services with public-interest programming.

The Made-Up Get Made Up And the Rich Get Pampered

Premium channel HBO joined the now-ritual pre-Emmy primping last week, sponsoring a luxe suite at the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills. That was the destination for a select group of invitees who were treated to beauty treatments from “eyebrow grooming” to make-up consultation in advance of the big night.

Nominees, presenters and other “special VIPs” — which did not include ink-stained wretches, we assure you — were picked to receive nearly $2,000 worth of luxury leather goods, perfumes and make-up products from Lancôme.

Invitees included Debra Messing, Charlize Theron, Ellen DeGeneres, Jennifer Garner, Lisa Kudrow and Cynthia Nixon.

Yep, those poor women obviously need help from some make-up.