June 23, 2007

ABC and NBC have both been accused of having been party to tacky negotiations for the first post-jailhouse interview with Paris Hilton, reportedly offering six and seven figures, respectively -- supposedly intended to enhance the coffers of the Hiltons, a family of dizzying means.

One of the first questions that sprang to mind upon hearing the news of the network duel was: How far has CBS News risen in stature to have kept out of this sordid money game? My second question, milliseconds later, was: How far has CBS fallen from favor in celebrities’ and publicists’ eyes that the network can’t even place or show in this horse race -- er, rather, car wreck?

Don’t get me wrong. I believe that an interview with Paris Hilton (and possibly with her parents) about the prison ordeal, the media siege, her Spiritual Transformation, as it's being touted -- if procured without conditions and without an offer of recompense – is journalistically valid, a huge "get," and perfect made-for-television theater-of-the-absurdity. Indeed, the Web site TMZ.com has just reported that CNN’s Larry King, natch, has been granted the honors. (He’ll have his night with Paris this coming Wednesday.) And I’m looking forward to tomorrow's tabloid pile-on: Paris Sing Sings To Larry, Not Ba-Ba…Paris Won't Sell Her Cell Story...

But why did the networks drop out?

Yesterday, the New York Post wrote that ABC’s offer of a reportedly paltry $100,000 was spurned by the family. The subtext was that ABC, having been bested (or having feared it had been bested) by NBC, supposedly chose to deftly spin its spurn, allegedly leaking the story line that at least the Disney team hadn’t gone NBC’s low road, which had reportedly put a cool million in play to secure the air rights to Her Heirness. Inevitably, an NBC spokesperson late yesterday issued what seemed like a non-denial denial, seeming to pirouette on the head of a pin: “We have informed [the Hiltons’] representatives that we are not interested in this interview. . . .We never had a deal for an interview. We are not canceling the interview. No interview was ever booked.”

My reaction, of course, was: Whatever happened to backbone?! ABC and NBC should have stuck to the straight and narrow, and let Larry King eat their dust. They should have muscled and wined and wooed the desperate Hiltons anyway. Why walk away from a catch like this just because the envious print press is jumpy about the fees? The Hiltons cannot NOT do an interview. They covet air time like the rest of us do oxygen. Everyone knows that if there's one constant in all this, it is that The Hiltons Always Do It For Free.

And so it goes. In the latest Battle of Paris, this time the Big Boys caved. (CLICK HERE for a previous post on how CBS did the same, with Don Imus.)