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Sideshow: Couric mulling multiple dimensions

"I have decided to step down from the CBS Evening News." With those shocking words, Katie Couric on Tuesday set the world ablaze with a heretofore unthinkable move. (It's not as if her departure hasn't been dissected for weeks!)

"I have decided to step down from the CBS Evening News."

With those shocking words, Katie Couric on Tuesday set the world ablaze with a heretofore unthinkable move. (It's not as if her departure hasn't been dissected for weeks!)

Couric, who has been in the biz for 32 years, tells People.com she'll miss her CBS News family. "I'm really proud of the talented team  . . . and the award-winning work we've been able to do in the past five years," she says. Yet she adds, " I am excited about the future."

And the future would be . . . where?

Couric, 54, is vague. "I am looking at a format that will allow me to engage in more multidimensional storytelling," she says, adding that the details are "still being discussed."

TV Guide says Couric may stay at CBS if they give her a daytime talker.

She's also being courted by ABC.

We'll know soon enough.

Counting down to 'Countdown'

Speaking of famous news-delivery devices, Keith Olbermann on Tuesday announced  that his new news show, Countdown, will premiere June 20 on Current TV. Sound familiar? It's the same title as his old MSNBC show.

KO pledged his will be a show where "journalistic integrity and analytical honesty would never be compromised by corporate synergy."

Meade wins Tucker Award

Soprano Angela Meade became the third consecutive Academy of Vocal Arts graduate to win the coveted Richard Tucker Award, which usually marks the beginning of a major career. Meade is no stranger to awards - she won 50 competitions between '99 and '08, including the Met National Council Auditions - but this one comes with $30,000 and an appearance at the Richard Tucker Foundation's annual high-profile gala on Nov. 6 at Lincoln Center.

She won't have to travel far to get there, having recently moved from Philly to New York, where the Metropolitan Opera is keeping her busy. In the fall, she'll alternate with Anna Netrebko in the title role of the Donizetti opera Anna Bolena  . The past two winners of the Richard Tucker Award were AVA tenors James Valenti and Stephen Costello.

- David Patrick Stearns

Perry spins more TBS fairy dust

Tyler Perry's relationship with TBS has borne yet another fledgling hit: The cabler has picked up the dramedy For Better or For Worse, a spin-off of Tyler's Why Did I Get Married? movies. It'll star Michael Jai White and Tasha Smith as the bickering couple introduced in the first Married? pic.

Another cheesy media war?

Vowing he's not starting "some cheesy cable-news feud," CNN's Anderson Cooper has kicked off a CheeZee cable feud with an attack on Sean Hannity. Coop claims he was quoted out of context on the Fox News star's special program on liberal bias in the media.

Mini-Sarkozy number 5?

French newsmag Closer has set France's gossipers in a fury of panting and heaving with a report that first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, 43, is pregnant with her first child with French prez Nicolas Sarkozy

.

 Sarkozy, 54, has three sons from two previous marriages. Carla's one child, 9-year-old boy Aurelien, was borne of her post-Hegel-ian para-dialectical romps with ex-beau, French philosopher Raphael Enthoven.

French authorities have not denied or confirmed the report.

Tidbits 'n' pieces

"My thoughts race with visions of a brighter future, only made possible by what happens today," Beverly Hills, 90210 alum Ian Ziering writes on Facebook: His wife Erin delivered baby girl Mia Loren Ziering on Monday. . . . American Idol hero Justin Guarini, 32, and wife Reina Capodici welcomed a son, William Neko Bell Guarini, on Tuesday. . . . Beloved convict Lindsay Lohan tells Jay Leno in a chat, to air Tuesday on The Tonight Show, that she's "not a kid anymore." LiLo promises to be a responsible citizen. Like, really! . . . Actor, singer, chef, and author Gwyneth Paltrow is the new celeb face of handbag line Coach. . . . USA Today says Eminem, Foo Fighters, Coldplay, Muse, and My Morning Jacket will be among the headliners for Lollapalooza's 20th anniversary show Aug. 5-7 in Chicago. . . . Hangover star Ed Helms will host Saturday Night Live on May 14. . . . L Word and Life stunner Sarah Shahi had a near-miss with Paris Hilton. "[She's the] worst driver ever. Almost hit me, then ran a stop sign," Shahi tweets. "Paris Hilton - horrible excuse for a human being." Ouch!

No more Potter! Please, J.K.!

So pleaded Harry Potter megastar Daniel Radcliffe when he heard rumors J.K Rowling may write more Potter books. The thesp tells Celebuzz.com he asked the author to let him off the hook. (Can you blame the guy? He'd be stuck playing Potter for decades!)

J.K. relented, telling him "she was so pleased with my performance in Harry Potter 7: Part 1 that as a reward, she promised to never write another book about Harry."

Jodie: Mel Gibson is kind, loyal

Jodie Foster has entered an old philosophical debate: Do we have an essence apart from our actions, or are we the sum of our behavior?

Mel Gibson, Foster says, may have behaved badly of late, but inside he's a good man. (That'd be beneath the racist remarks, drunkenness, and alleged assault on his pregnant gf?)

"I'm not defending his behavior," says Foster. "I'm defending the man that I know. And I know he's kind and loyal." Foster is busy promoting her new pic, The Beaver, which stars Mel as a man so depressed he can interface with his family only through a beaver puppet. (Sounds more like a Saturday Night Live skit.)