Forget the persistent rumors that Sir George Martin, best known as producer of those British guys known as the Beatles, will one day turn up as a mentor on Fox's "American Idol."

Martin, speaking to the Television Critics Association about a sprawling PBS music series, "On Record: The Soundtrack of Our Lives," that according to our press kits isn't scheduled to premiere for two more years, was asked about those "Idol" reports.

"I know it's enormously popular, 'American Idol,'" Martin said. "But it's not my cup of tea."

Tea being very important to the British, that apparently means he "would never dream of" appearing on the show, which is based on Britain's own "Pop Idol."

Martin also pointed out that the people associated with the show are making an awful lot of money, "but I'd rather be poor."

And you thought Simon Cowell was direct.

PBS plans to air Ian McKellen's "King Lear" on "Great Performances" sometime next year, but if you're expecting to see the full frontal nudity that was apparently a memorable part of Sir Ian's performance, you'll just have to wait and see.

Or not.

PBS president Paula Kerger, who saw McKellen in the play's limited run in New York, said she urged "Great Performances to film it upon its return to London.

She didn't seem interested in committing publicly to the nudity, one way or another.

As Kerger tried to avoid a definitive response to a reporter's question about whether we'd be seeing the full McKellen onscreen, another reporter, a a woman who generally maintains strict radio silence during these press conferences, could be heard crying, "Say yes!"

"I haven't seen the taped version yet," Kerger said. "Let's talk about this in January," when she's next scheduled to meet with members of the Television Critics Association.

You can't just sweep something like this under the rug, though. Not with a roomful of reporters typing away on their blogs.

Asked how she'd responded to McKellen's nude scene personally, she finally replied, "Me, personally? It's powerful."

But she also pointed out: "It's about what I think about it and what the FCC will think."

On a less racy note, Kerger also announced Ken Burns' next project, one that's unlikely to present the Federal Communications Commission issues raised by the very occasional profanity in "The War."

"The National Parks: America's Best Idea," a six-part series, will air in the fall of 2009, Kerger said.

While we're out here, the country's apparently going to the dogs.

That's pretty much the only canine joke that CBS didn't make in its latest ratings release, with touts the high-for-summer ratings for last night's premiere of "Greatest American Dog," which averaged 9.46 million viewers, according to the preliminary Nielsens.

From the release, "The Dogs Ate the Ratings: "Greatest American Dog Chews Through the Competition":

"The premiere of CBS's GREATEST AMERICAN DOG, a reality series that pits 12 teams of dogs and owners in a competition that tests owners' skills in handling dogs, won its time period among dogs 1.79-7 years old (18-49 in dog years) and delivered the highest prime time audience among canines since Lassie in 1974, according to the CBS data that hasn't been chewed apart or eaten."

The show also "premiered in first place in dog-patrolled households, canine viewers, upscale purebreds, 'Heinz 57' (mutt) adults and the advertiser-coveted 1.79-7 year olds." 

Wolf Blitzer's on the injured list, left back in Washington to talk to TV critics via satellite while John King and company are here to talk politics in Beverly Hills.

This might not seem like a tragedy, but having done a Starbucks run just before the session, I can attest that it's pretty nice out here today -- a breezy low 70s in the 90210 zip code that's not often found in D.C. in July.

"I was running on my treadmill and I had a little pull on my hamstring," says Blitzer.

King, meanwhile, fields the first  question -- about why it took a "Saturday Night Live" sketch to change the way CNN et al. covered Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

King reminds us that Clinton first posed herself as the inevitable candidate, not the feisty underdog.

"We covered them as the Fortress Clinton," said King, who acknowledged some shift in coverage about the time of the famous "SNL" skit that showed Obama being treated with tender concern during debates while Clinton got battered by newspeople.

King and CNN's D.C. bureau chief, David Bohrman, and their boss, network president Jonathan Klein, keep describing issues-oriented political coverage that sounds a lot better than the coverage many of us are seeing, which often seems to be setting its own agenda for maximum drama.

Challenged by one critic to "screw the drama" in covering the conventions,  King said, "I would argue not screw the drama [but] marry and challenge the drama," while agreeing that issues matter more.

"No question, if we fail that test, then we fail that great opportunity," he said.

We have HBO suits there, so naturally someone asks about the "Deadwood" movies.

Yes, they've told us before that that idea's dead, but like children who were long ago promised a pony only to have their parents renege -- OK, that's my issue, and I'm nearly over it -- we keep asking.

Given that "Deadwood" creator David Milch, who jilted his dusty masterpiece for the enigmatic but sunny "John From Cincinnati," is now at work on "Last of the Ninth," a drama about corruption in the New York Police Department in the 1970s, the likelihood of "Deadwood" returning is "slim to none," said HBO co-president Richard Plepler.

Branch Rickey III, grandson of the Brooklyn Dodgers executive who'll be played by Robert Redford in an ESPN film about the signing of Jackie Robinson, has a Philadelphia story.

Seems that in 1949, when he was about 4, he accompanied his father, who worked for the Dodgers, on a road trip. They were staying at Philadelphia's Warwick Hotel, and getting ready to leave when the older Rickey discovered he'd forgotten his wallet. A couple of the Dodgers were in the lobby, and Rickey asked them to watch his son.

The wallet having fallen behind a piece of furniture, it took him a while to find it, and in the meantime, the players brought the boy out to the steps, where they bounced a ball with him until his father returned.

The players?

Jackie Robinson and PeeWee Reese.

They were, Rickey said, the first Dodgers, indeed the first professional ballplayers, he'd ever met.

Spike Lee's here to talk about a couple of projects he's doing for ESPN, including a documentary, "Game Day," in which the Knicks fanatic followed Kobe Bryant around for a day on which the Lakers played the San Antonio Spurs.

But, hey, he's Spike Lee, well-known quote machine, so all the questions aren't going to be about Kobe.

On what would change with a Barack Obama presidency: "You have to measure time Before Obama and After Obama."

On what he hopes an Obama win might mean for the entertainment industry:

"The gatekeepers are not people of color, and that's how things are going to change. Because there's only a few people...that decide what films get made and don't get made, what goes on television and what doesn't."

On the Screen Actors Guild's negotiations: "I would say the majority of people in SAG don't work...as actors" so they might be inclined to vote for a strike, but he hopes not.

"It affects the whole industry. It goes down to the people who do catering...it affects everybody. In this country, economically, we're in bad shape...so hopefully people won't be selfish," Lee said, not specifying whether he was talking about the actors or the producers.

"I think they need to read the newspapers and where we are, the state of the economy."

Following the squeaky-clean Bob Woodruff: Planet Green's other big names -- Chris "Ludacris" Bridges and Tommy Lee, who starting Aug. 3 will be starring in "Battleground Earth."

Apparently, they competed in a 10-city tour to save Mother Earth.

(God help us all.)

Ludacris is here, Lee's on satellite from somewhere in Canada.

Ludacris says he's working on getting solar panels for his home in Georgia, hoping to sell the excess back to the power company. He also bought a Tahoe hybrid just yesterday.

"I've been talking to the solar panel company and I'm gonna try to get off the grid," Lee offers.

And sure, Ludacris might have a hybrid, but "I save the planet big time, because I just don't go anywhere." said the rocker, who's currently on tour with Motley Crue. 

"I met Al Gore right before he won the Grammy for 'An Inconvenient Truth'...he really opened my eyes," says Ludacris.

Still, aside from the oneupsmanship, environmental competition seems to have fueled a friendship between the rocker and the rapper.

"I absolutely adore him. Guy's a sweetheart," Lee says of his  rival.

Don't know if there are environmental ramifications of tattoos, but when a reporter asked Lee about his body art, he identified an entire zoo, including "several koi, a leopard...a big peacock down my leg."

What he wouldn't do is answer questions about reports that he's once again back with ex Pamela Anderson.

But it occurs to us that if these two could simply make up their minds, one way or another, the savings in wood pulp alone would offset the couple's entire carbon footprint.

ABC News' Bob Woodruff, whose near-death experience in Iraq two years ago cost him the "World News Tonight" anchor job, is an anchor again.

Starting Saturday, Woodruff's anchoring Discovery Networks-owned Planet Green's weekly "eco-newscast," "Focus Earth with Bob Woodruff." A production of ABC News, it's supposed to look at the environmental links to everything from the presidential campaign to the cost of food and fuel.

Woodruff's in New York, but he and executive producer Vinnie Malhotra, are speaking to reporters via satellite.

From here, he looks good, but naturally, he's asked about his health, which he says is fine.

"I would say I'm probably  working more hours than I have in my life. We are also putting pieces on ABC News" as well as Discovery, he said.

Asked about his past focus on veterans and on brain injuries, he said, "I'm continuing to report on that as well, because that is still so important to me."

"In so many ways, I consider this a miracle -- to not only to return to journalism," but to be able to report on a topic, the environment, that he considers crucial.

The project also reunites him with Malhotra.

"It was Vinnie who was with me in that tank, with the blood coming out of my neck," helping "to save my life," Woodruff said.