Brad Pitt told Larry King that he didn't understand the public's interest in his life with Angelina Jolie and their children, though he would allow that his is an "interesting family. It's not your usual family." [Us Weekly]

Tricia Walsh-Smith, who you might remember from the Youtube tirade she directed at former husband Philip Smith, has posted a new video in honor of her ex's promotion to chairman of the Shubert Organazation. The clip is called "I'm Going Bonkers" and features a dominatrix costume. [Cityfile]

West 27th Street's Pink Elephant may be on its last legs. [Down By The Hipster]

Paris Hilton is lobbying for the title role in Disney's live action movie Tinkerbell. [P6]

Britney Spears's ex-best friend Alli Sims and ex-husband Kevin Federline don't seem to believe the once very troubled popstar is ready for a national tour. [NYDN]

Jerome Corsi, he of Swift Boat fame, was on CNN's Larry King Live last night defending his new book, The Obama Nation against Paul Waldman, a fidgety fellow from progressive watchdog group, Media Matters. On August 12th, Jim Rutenberg and Julie Bosman pointed out in The New York Times that many of Mr. Corsi's claims—specifically that Barack Obama never addressed when he stopped using drugs—were false.

Mr. Corsi, at one point said, "My argument is that the self-reporting of people who used drugs as to when they quit is not reliable." That's kind of interesting, actually, since Mr. Obama's two memoirs, while pretty good and everything, do contain exactly the sort of fake dialogue and imagined details David Carr's recent memoir, The Night of the Gun rejected.

Video above.

Barbara Corcoran was on Larry King Live last night as part of a panel on the mortgage mess (transcript here). The founder of the Corcoran Group, now an author and TV personality, couldn't understand why more people weren't now buying homes and quickly:

Barely a few minutes later, though, in response to a question about the origins of the mortgage crisis, Ms. Corcoran said somberly:

Michelle Williams is reportedly feuding with Heath Ledger's family over the late actor's will. [P6]

Ron Perelman and his ex, Patricia Duff, are back in court because a court-appointed lawyer for their 13-year-old daughter says that the girl has been subjected to emotional abuse. [NY Daily News]

Ashley Dupre thanked her fans and critics on her MySpace page yesterday. [NY Daily News]

Helena Christensen will not shake your hand if you cross her. [P6]

Larry King's wife, Shawn Southwick King, has reportedly gone to rehab for her addiction to painkillers. [P6]

Bravo's Shear Genius stylists will give New Yorkers free blow-outs in Times Square today. [The Cut]

On Tuesday April, 22, Steve Krakauer of TV Newser was the first to report that CNN's suspender-wearing newsman Larry King had re-upped with the cable news network through June 2011.

The news immediately kicked up more speculation about what that might mean for the beleaguered Katie Couric, who had been (conveniently!) rumored as a possible replacement for Mr. King, sometime next year. Most commentators greeted the news of Mr. King's contract extension as a sign that, whatever else she might end up doing, Ms. Couric was now unlikely to join CNN's primetime lineup.

But not so fast! Now Verne Gay of Newsday has reported that Mr. King "did not secure a guarantee to continue anchoring the 9 p.m. hour," which according to Mr. Gay's sources, "opens the door wide for Couric when she leaves CBS after the inauguration, as she almost certainly will."

"When the Katie-out-at-CBS story broke a couple weeks ago, CNN - with remarkable haste - signed King to a new deal that will carry him through 2011," writes Mr. Gay. "But Larry effectively was given the kingdom without getting the throne. Sure, he'll be at CNN - but at 9? The answer to that is the only one that matters."

Filling out the rumors floated in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal, today the New York Times reports that a “wide-ranging discussion” about Katie Couric’s future took place among CBS executives back in February:

According to the Times, Ms. Couric talked about a number of possibilities should she leave the anchor post, including the idea of hosting a daily talk show or replacing Larry King at the 9 p.m. hour on CNN:

Over at the Washington Post, Howard Kurtz speculates about who might replace Ms. Couric. Possible internal candidates, according to Mr. Kurtz, include Harry Smith, Scott Pelley, and Russ Mitchell.

As for external candidates:

At the same time, the Daily News speculated that Ms. Couric might return to Jeff Zucker and NBC, where she spent the bulk of her career:

CNN fixture Larry King’s 9-year-old son Chance Armstrong King plays Beverly Hills Little League. King père is the coach of Chance’s team.

On Monday, March 10, during a heated game, the suspendered talk show host apparently got into a confrontation with one of the league’s umpires. “[Mr. King] was making a fool out of himself as a manager on the field, talking in the middle of the field in the middle of plays,” reported a source close to the action.

According to this source, Mr. King was told by the umpire in question to “regroup” and calm himself, and he did not respond well to this. Rather, the informant said, he continued arguing and was then relegated to the bleachers, where he continued to make noise, and was finally forced to watch the game from the outfield’s periphery.

An eyewitness contradicted this account somewhat, saying he did not recall the journalist’s movements throughout the game, but that he was certain Mr. King had not been banished. “He absolutely did question an ump’s call,” said this spy. “He was asked to cool it.” But there was no profanity used, nor was subsequent disciplinary action brought against the celebrity dad. “He’s one of the valued volunteer coaches; I’m pretty sure that he’s coaching today,” Mr. King’s champion said. “I like his Bronx spiciness!”

A rep for the journalist (who was actually born in Brooklyn) did not return a call by press time.

Young Chance is the son of Mr. King, 74, and his sixth wife, actress Shawn Southwick, 49. They were married on September 5, 1997, in a Jewish–Mormon interfaith ceremony.

Candid Katie Couric can be a great thing. But recently most of the genre's memorable moments—Husky eyes!—have come to us courtesy of Harry Shearer. Not from the official Ms. Couric sanctioned YouTube channel.

That said, this most recent clip from the YouTube project, in which Ms. Couric travels to an interview with CNN's Larry King, has one pretty classic moment.

At the 1:24 mark: She is following the venerable newsman down a hallway outside his studio, when Ms. Couric reaches out and snaps Mr. King's suspenders from behind.

Somehow it works.

Shirley MacLaine was just honored with a lifetime achievement award at the Santa Fe Film Festival, and according to the 73-year-old film star, the win meant more than her 1983 Oscar for a poignant, now-iconic turn in director James Brooks’ Terms of Endearment. “Of all the awards I've gotten all over the world—and I have been in this business a long time—this means more to me because I'm being awarded this in a place that I seriously and deeply love,” she said. Channeling Georgia O’Keefe, Ms. MacLaine elaborated on her love for the arid state, touching on the spiritual peace she finds only in the American Southwest, where she becomes “reassembled and renewed and reorganized.”

The American Southwest is also where she gets a little freaky. Those who missed Larry King’s totally bizarre episode on U.F.O. cover-ups that recently aired on CNN—during which Ms. MacLaine waxes wacky on the presence of alien beings—can watch the clip here. The talk show appearance might be one of the few things more heartbreaking than Terms of Endearment.

Gawker catches New York Times TV reporter Bill Carter in what looks like an embarrassing slip. Mr. Carter reported today that Shepard Smith's new contract with Fox News, which is worth around $7 million a year, will make him better-paid than anyone at rival CNN, "if reports of $5 million for Anderson Cooper and $6 million for Lou Dobbs are accurate." But in 2002, The Times reported that CNN's Larry King was set to sign a contract that would pay him $7 million base salary. And in 1998, Mr. Carter himself reported the same thing.

This post, by the way, was for those of you looking for some hot media on media on media on media action....