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'Dynasty' scion ducks Fox news goading

Also in Tattle: "Big Bang" star wed, "Sopranos" actor should expect police on his tail and dame you, Angela Lansbury.

IN 2014, TATTLE is going to make an attempt to write about more good things, more positive stories, more about how we're all on this floating blue ball together and we need to work together.

Thank goodness we're off tomorrow. Maybe this will pass by Monday.

But kicking off our year of good vibrations, "Duck Dynasty" star Willie Robertson, son of Phil, went on Fox News' "All-American New Year" special Tuesday night and played the role of adult - choosing not to take the bait of hosts Bill Hemmer and Elisabeth Hasselbeck and rip A&E or evil liberals or even defend daddy Phil's comments about gays, happy pre-civil rights Southern blacks or the marital viability of 15-year-old girls.

Nope, Willie took the high road, baffling execs at Fox News (and MSNBC). "Hmm . . . there's a high road?" they asked themselves.

"We're just glad to be back to work, and A&E and us are fine," Willie said in a live appearance with wife Korie.

"We're looking forward to getting back to making some funny shows," Willie said. "We're ready to move on, you know. I think we all learned a lot and we're just ready to move on, and the family's happy, and we're ready to go. I've got to make sure my guys are back there building duck calls."

Asked her thoughts on the suspension, Korie took the same conciliatory tone.

"Hey, I'm just glad the family's all together, the best thing about the show is we get to do it as a family," she said. "We're all happy, happy, happy."

* Speaking of MSNBC, following Melissa Harris-Perry's "joke" and subsequent apology about Mitt Romney's adopted black grandson (seriously, what were you thinking?), we wonder if there will come a time in 2014 when MSNBC is forced to run an hour of white noise and static because it's run out of talking heads.

'Bang,' you're wed!

"Big Bang Theory" star Kaley Cuoco married tennis pro Ryan Sweeting on New Year's Eve at a ranch in Santa Susana, Calif.

Afterward, Kaley, 28, posted photos with her 26-year-old husband on Instagram. She wore a pink Vera Wang wedding gown and captioned one picture as "Greatest night of my entire life."

And across the pond . . .

Angela Lansbury, best known by TV fans for "Murder, She Wrote" but also known for Broadway roles in "Sweeney Todd," "Mame," "Gypsy" and a lot of movies including "The Manchurian Candidate," is ringing in the new year as a Dame of the British Empire.

Angela, 88, was one of more than 1,000 people recognized by Queen Elizabeth II in the New Year's Honors List. For the first time, most of the honorees were women.

The twice-yearly royal honors reward hundreds of people for services to their community or national life.

Dr. Marcus Setchell, for instance, was made a knight.

His service? He's the queen's gynecologist.

No need to leave him off the list and stirrup trouble.

TATTBITS

* Las Vegas police captain David O'Leary, who helped Guns N' Roses guitarist Daren Jay "DJ" Ashba pull off an elaborate wedding proposal by arranging a flight on a department helicopter, has retired rather than face demotion.

O'Leary faced demotion to lieutenant for helping arrange the Aug. 7 private flight for Ashba and his then-girlfriend, Colombian actress Nathalia Henao, the police department said in a statement.

O'Leary, a 25-year veteran who oversaw the Financial Crimes Bureau, instead retired Dec. 20.

Officer Ray Horsley, who piloted the chopper, is being transferred as of Jan. 11 and will no longer be allowed to fly for the department, police officials said.

The discipline follows a four-month investigation launched after word of the private, unauthorized aerial tour of Sin City came from Ashba himself via an Instagram photo of he and Henao wearing helicopter headgear and thanking the LVPD for "the most amazing" private helicopter tour over the city.

He said it ended in a field at police headquarters, where he proposed amid roses and "a bottle of the bubble stuff."

The couple wed in September.

* In New York, former "Sopranos" actor Lillo Brancato Jr., convicted for his real-life role in the slaying of an off-duty police officer during a botched break-in at a Bronx home, was released from prison Tuesday and put on parole.

Brancato was freed after serving time for a 2008 burglary conviction. At the same trial, he was acquitted on a second-degree murder count.

He earned an earlier release by taking college courses and meeting disciplinary standards, officials said. He was ordered to report to his parole officer in suburban Westchester County, where he will remain under supervision until the end of 2018.

So it was a happy end to 2013 for Brancato, but . . .

His freedom came over the vehement objections of police union officials, who insisted he should have been convicted of murder.

Said Patrick Lynch, president of the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, in a statement: "This union will take any steps necessary to ensure that this miscreant follows the conditions of his parole down to the last letter."

Lillo, you better be a good boy.

- Daily News wire services contributed to this report.

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