Hollywood Exclusive by Marilyn Beck & Stacy Jenel Smith

New CBS News Anchor Scott Pelley: Right Man, Right Time/Gold Stars to Daniel Radcliffe for His Handling of Tony Snub

Bravo to CBS for its elevation of "60 Minutes" correspondent Scott Pelley to anchor of "CBS Evening News" — the right person for the right job at the right time, who can bring a burst of fresh energy to the post after Katie Couric's checkered five-year run.

Pelley has covered news from Iraq dozens of times, traveled with the XVIII Airborne Corps in its assault on Iraq and Kuwait and has reported on such major events as the Branch Davidian siege near Waco, Texas, and the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. But Pelley told this column that the story that tops all others for him was the 9/11 attacks.

He was there in Manhattan when the first World Trade Center tower was hit by a hijacked airplane. Then, "I was within a few blocks of the building when it collapsed. The human mind does the strangest things. It looked like I was watching slow motion, and I remember thinking, 'It will stop. It will fall five or 10 stories, then stop,' but it kept going, and then finally, there was that hurricane of powder and dust and debris. To see a 120-story building collapse is the scariest thing you can ever see. For the rest of my life, I will be in awe of the police officers and firefighters who stood there and did their jobs."

Pelley recalled that CBS was on the air nonstop, commercial-free for 96 hours, and that he stayed at Ground Zero filing reports for two weeks.

"It's like covering a hurricane or any other natural disaster. You stay there and work there until there's no more work to do."

The considerable time that Pelley spent covering our wars in the Middle East have convinced him that "Agree or disagree, you should stand in awe and gratitude of that young man or woman in that foxhole. One of my biggest regrets is that I never wore the uniform of our country, but I have been in contact with many in the armed forces and consider it a privilege to have been with these guys."

What a fitting highlight to Pelley's personal story that he should be named CBS's new top newscaster the same week Osama bin Laden met his doom.

A GENTLEMAN: Daniel Radcliffe gets gold stars for his diplomatic handling of his snubbing in the Tony nominations this week — passed over for Best Lead Actor in a Musical, while his "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying" succeeded in nabbing seven nominations.

The "Harry Potter" star was quoted saying that it was a very big year for musicals and there were others who deserved the nods, and that he was especially happy for co-star John Larroquette's nomination. You can be sure that Larroquette feels disappointed on Radcliffe's behalf. He's become a big fan, he told us, and added that Radcliffe "sets the bar for being willing to work hard ...

He is, in a real sense of the word, a trouper." (See the full story at AARP.org.)

FAR EAST FLAVOR: Some of the world's most esteemed culinary masters, including Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto, Michelin Star Chef Anito Lo and Madonna's personal chef, Mayumi Nishimura, have teamed up with KeepRecipes.com founder Phil Michaelson to provide Japan-inspired recipes to help the American Red Cross with their relief efforts in Japan. Check out the website donate.keeprecipes.com — where, until June 30, it will be possible to get a digital cookbook with 21 Japan-inspired recipes from an esteemed list of top chefs, for any donation made of $10 or more.

Michaelson put out the call to top foodies for help in the drive, and says, "The reception was overwhelming and I am honored to be able to offer this one-of-a-kind recipe collection in support of the American Red Cross."

Recipes include: Morimoto's braised black cod; Nishimura's wakame soup with snow peas and ginger; and New York Times columnist and best-selling author Mark Bittman's baked mushroom-sesame rice balls.

OF SHOW BUSINESS AND POLITICS: In the current rare moment of national harmony, it would be nice to think that this could mark the beginning of a more mutually open-minded or at least less flamethrower and fear-monger-filled political discourse on television and elsewhere. Disagreement does not have to turn abusive.

Consider: The five-decade friendship between Golden Era movie stars Jimmy Stewart and Henry Fonda is well known, as is the fact that Stewart was a staunch Republican and Fonda a devout Democrat. They even did a send-up of their political differences in their "Cheyenne Social Club" Western. Someone posted clips of it on You Tube. User comments included an observation that the parties and partisan politics have become entirely different beasts than in Fonda and Stewart's day. Then, a friendship such as theirs could survive, where in today's vicious environment, it wouldn't stand a chance.

In fact, there could not have been more monumental pressure applied than what Stewart and Fonda grappled with — first during the Hollywood blacklisting period, and later during the Vietnam War.

Fonda's daughter, Jane, was the most controversial of anti-war activists. Stewart's son and his nephew were military men who were killed in Vietnam.

Stewart, a decorated WWII bomber pilot and brigadier general in the Air Force Reserve, made it clear that as far as he was concerned, his son "was called upon by his country ... When he got on the field of battle, he conducted himself in a gallant manner, and to me, that's not a tragedy."

Fonda (who himself had been a decorated WWII Navy man) agreed with Jane about Vietnam and once publicly admonished her critics to "shut up" because "she's perfect."

Fonda and Stewart did not discuss the war. As Stewart explained in a TV interview, "I — we — just realized that if we started yelling at each other about this, the thing would go out the window, and both of us valued this friendship too much." If they could do it...

To find out more about Marilyn Beck and Stacy Jenel Smith and read their past columns, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

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