Charlie Rose and Oprah's Pal to Save 'The Early Show'

Ray Gustini
Charlie Rose and Oprah's Pal to Save 'The Early Show'

Welcome to the Smart Set. Every morning we bring you the gossip coverage, filtered. Today: Charlie Rose and Gayle King are about to shake up your morning talk show routine, Howard Stern is close to a deal to replace Piers Morgan, and Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel are absolutely dating again.

  • It looks like Charlie Rose and Gayle King are really going to host The Early Show, assuming Rose is able to make it out of bed before 10 a.m. for the first time in his life. CBS is apparently "putting the finishing touches on the show," which will  "emphasize hard news and use a conversational approach like Morning Joe on MSNBC and The View on ABC." An official announcement is expected to take place next Tuesday. Rose and King would start their run "sometime early next year" on the program's new West Side set, with current co-hosts Erica Hill and Jeff Glor staying on as well.  [The New York Times]

  • Oprah Winfrey wants to return to acting. The one-time Best Supporting Actress nominee (for The Color Purple) tells Variety she's been having discussions with several talking to directors Tyler Perry, Lee Daniels and Jonathan Demme about possible projects. Demme directed Winfrey in her last major screen role, the 1998 adaptation of Toni Morrison's Beloved. [Variety]

  • Howard Stern is reportedly close to a deal with NBC to replace Piers Morgan as a judge on America's Got Talent. This can only end well for all parties involved, especially for any contestant whose talent is ambush celebrity interview. [The Wall Street Journal]

  • Exes Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel had another secret date over lunch at Soho House in Miami yesterday. Since braking up in March, they've been spotted eating pork tacos in Toronto, attended a play in Los Angeles where everyone wore masks, and gone to Steamboat Springs, Colorado for the wedding of one of Biel's childhood friends [Page Six]

  • Longtime HBO Sports head Ross Greenburg, who denied his July departure from the network had anything to do with losing last May's Shane Mosley-Manny Pacquiao fight to rival Showtime, has been hired to "produce documentaries for the newly formed NBC Sports Group, which includes the NBC Sports Network, Golf Channel and NBC." He's also going to produce a talk show for Bob Costas (doesn't he have like four of those already?). It will air on NBC Sports, which is what they're calling the rebranded Versus channel that launches January 2. [Deadline]

  • The injury bug returned to Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark Wednesday when Matthew James Thomas, the production's matinee Peter Parker, was injured while "transitioning from one scene to another," according to Playbill. The show was stopped for ten minutes and Thomas wound up having to go to the hospital for stitches, but the producers insist the injury is minor and "and will be back in the show for his next scheduled performance on Saturday." Hear that, cast of Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark? You walked into a door. [Playbill]

  • Anderson Cooper's syndicated talk show Anderson will be back for a second season, but Cooper has decided to change networks in the country's biggest market. Anderson currently airs on WPIX/Channel 11 in New York, but will move next September to WNYW/Channel 5. A WPIX spokesperson admitted the program was "not a good fit" for the channel, because they have too many "conflict talk shows" on their morning schedule. [Fishbowl NY]