Katie Couric: 'I'm OK'

Katie Couric: 'I'm OK' | Madonna's First Class Graduates | Ashlee 'Fesses Up; Cruise on Must-Not List; 'Sex' Tix Fault

Katie Couric: 'I'm OK'

Katie Couric is cool with everything, despite her low ratings and continual bad press.

I ran into her just as "Sex and the City" was ending at Radio City and expressed confidence that she would prevail in the news race.

"Don’t worry about me," Katie said, with a perky smile. "I’m OK."

Indeed, she sure looked OK. And her visit to the "Today" show on Wednesday to promote an all-network cancer telethon was a hit.

Her friends say the one thing she doesn’t like is being reassured or asked how she’s doing. So we won’t do that anymore!

Meantime, the cancer telethon seems to be the reason Couric was so intent on talking to and spending time with NBC chief Jeff Zucker lately. Back in April, at the George Clooney dinner at the 21 Club for "Leatherheads," Katie only wanted to sit with the Zuckers. Glad that all worked out.

Back at CBS, Couric’s show should be straightening out even more soon. Producer Rick Kaplan is turning his attention to it full time, leaving his duties as temporary chief of the always shaky morning show. Who’s its next executive producer?

Madonna's First Class Graduates

Madonna should be very pleased with herself. According to her Raising Malawi Web site, her first class of Kabbalah-trained African orphans has just graduated.

Posted on her Web site’s blog on May 5 at 5:37 p.m., here is the entry from one J. Stephen Brantley. It’s titled "A Momentous Day for SFK Malawi." SFK stands for Spirituality for Kids. It’s the educational curriculum designed by Philip Berg, a former insurance salesman-turned-"rabbi" for the Kabbalah Centre in Los Angeles.

Interestingly, the SFK Web site has just been redesigned to cleanse itself of all connections to the Kabbalah Centre. Nevertheless, the Kabbalah Centre’s Web site has all the links and explanations back and forth connecting it to Raising Malawi and Spirituality for Kids.

"In 2006, the very first group of Malawian children began to learn the tools for transformation and personal empowerment that are the core of the Spirituality for Kids [SFK] curriculum. Today, on the 28th of April 2008, that same group of children has completed the final class of SFK’s Level Three course.

"They are now Malawi’s first-ever group to have graduated from all three levels of SFK, and they are all from the Raising Malawi-Consol Homes Orphan Care Centre!

"This is, indeed, a mark of great progress in Malawi. Better yet, it is surely a sign of good things to come. These kids will go on to become leaders in their communities, to inspire other children to empower themselves and will eventually pass on what they’ve learned to a new generation. They are the foundation upon which a stronger Malawi is being raised.

"We would like to congratulate Malawi’s first class of SFK full graduates, and to thank the teachers, donors and supporters who have made their education possible."

Despite Madonna’s insistence in turning Malawi into a private refuge of Kabbalah babblers, all her efforts have not been so successful. The "documentary" that she showed at both Tribeca and Cannes — "I Am Because We Are" — failed to get a theatrical distributor.

There’s been some rumbling that the film, a mission statement that some who’ve seen it have dubbed "We Are Because I Am," may be shown on the Sundance Channel at some point.

I should note that twice during the evening of the AmFar event in Cannes I was chastised quite strongly by Madonna’s loyal manager, Guy Oseary. After assuring me no one cared what I wrote about Madonna, Oseary claimed I was harming Madonna’s efforts "to save the world." He also questioned what I had done personally to do the same.

This is what Oseary and Madonna each do not get: Plenty of people do good things without asking for publicity or thanks. Madonna’s interest in Malawi comes across simply as another PR stunt, tied to her interests in Kabbalah.

Celebrities needn’t start charities unless none existed before. Brad Pitt, for example, saw the problem in New Orleans post-Katrina and pitched in. But Madonna operates in her own vacuum, one in which other aid organizations are irrelevant because she didn’t sanction or invent them.

Plenty of famous people work quietly for causes they believe in without making this much noise. Jane Fonda campaigns against teen pregnancy in Atlanta. Paul Simon works with a group that brings needed medical supplies to impoverished areas. Sting and Trudie Styler work on helping indigenous peoples and the rainforests.

None of them has a religious agenda or curriculum as an underpinning. They just do it.

Ashlee 'Fesses Up; Cruise on Must-Not List; 'Sex' Tix Fault

Ashlee Simpson and new hubby Pete Wentz have confirmed that they had a shotgun wedding. She's three months pregnant. Of course, you read that she was making Joe Simpson a grandpa at age 46 right here more than a month ago, when she refused to deny the upcoming blessed event. ...

Tom Cruise shouldn't think I'm his only critic. Entertainment Weekly's Must List put his Web site tomcruise.com at No. 10 recently. Notes the mag: "Cruise tries to retool his image with official (self-congratulatory) website. The verdict? We're still laughing." I guess the mag has forfeited all shots at a "Valkyrie" cover next winter. ...

The big snafu over seats at the Radio City premiere for "Sex and the City" belongs to the theater, not New Line Cinema. Indeed, ticket holders who were denied access should know that there was a whole empty part of the orchestra section on the left, and dozens of empty seats downstairs. The Radio City staff simply panicked when they saw the crowds. ...