Tuning In

Katie stressed at CBS

“CBS Evening News” anchor Katie Couric admits she slapped an editor — after he injected a word she detested into a script — according to a story in New York magazine.

“The stress has caused her to blow up at her staff for small infractions on the set,” writes reporter Joe Hagan, in a 6,000-word expose published yesterday, with the headline “I have days when I’m like, ’Oh my God, What did I do?’ Katie Couric’s Impossible Year.”

Miss Couric told Mr. Hagan that she slapped news editor Jerry Cipriano on the arm for using the word “sputum”— which refers to expectorated matter especially from the air passages in diseases of the lungs, bronchi or upper respiratory tract — during a tuberculosis story last month.

“I got mad at him and said, ’You can’t do this to me. You have to tell me when you’re going to use a word like that’,” Miss Couric said. “I was aggravated, there’s no question about that.”

“I sort of slapped him around.”

The word was later banned from future broadcasts, Associated Press reports.

According to Drudgereport.com, an unnamed CBS insider says Miss Couric slapped the staffer in a playful manner.

“Look, it wasn’t serious, whatsoever,” the insider was quoted as saying.

So far, Miss Couric’s move from co-host of NBC’s “Today” to anchor the CBS newscast has been a bust. Its ratings are deep in third place, and the network has rolled back some of the changes it made last fall to shake up the format, notes the Hollywood Reporter.

Under new executive producer Rick Kaplan, the “CBS Evening News” is a more traditional hard-news evening newscast in the mold of its predecessors and competitors.

Had she known that would happen, Miss Couric said, the job “would have been less appealing to me. It would have required a lot more thought.”

“People are very unforgiving and very resistant to change,” the 50-year-old Arlington native told the magazine. “The biggest mistake we made is we tried new things.

“I’ve gone through a bit of a feeding frenzy and there’s blood in the water and I’ve got some vulnerabilities,” she said. “This person who’s been successful isn’t so great, and finally she’s been put in her place — that kind of mentality. I think it’s fairly primal.”

However, Miss Couric said she’s looking forward to doing more work for the network’s “60 Minutes” next season.

“If it turns out it wasn’t a perfect fit (at the ’Evening News’), then, you know, I’ll do something else that’s really exciting and fulfilling for me.”

What’s up, doc?

A 36-year-old Croatian woman has slapped actor Goran Visnjic with a paternity suit, claiming that the “ER” star is the father of her 4-month-old daughter and that he knew about the pregnancy “from the start,” says TVGuide.com, citing a report by AP.

According to AP, Mirela Rupic filed suit after trying to settle the matter privately, only to have Mr. Visnjic say that he would support the child financially, but never recognize her as his own. Mr. Visnjic has been married to Croatian artist Ivana Vrdoljak since 1999, with whom he adopted a son in May.

Should the actor formally deny that he is the girl’s father, a paternity test would be required, says Miss Rupic’s attorney. Mr. Visnjic could not immediately be reached by AP for comment.

Compiled by Robyn-Denise Yourse from Web and wire reports