Who gets Peter Chernin's power table?

 

The biggest parlor game going on inside 20th Century Fox right now is not how much the upcoming "Ice Age" sequel will rack up at the box office this summer, but a much more crucial matter with far deeper import: which studio big shot will get Peter Chernin's coveted table at the commissary when the News Corp. president bolts in three weeks to enjoy one of the richest production deals in Hollywood?

The joke making the rounds at Fox's legendary dining room is, "It's going to take one of those kick-boxing death matches" to decide the heir apparent to the four-seat table [see photo above] that comes with the best view of the room and its very own black telephone -- what, these Fox guys don't use cellphones?

Naturally, Rupert Murdoch's new chosen one, Chase Carey, who is returning to the News Corp. fold as Chernin's successor, has first dibs on the table whenever the New York-based executive is in town, just as his boss does. As one Fox insider says, "Daddy always gets it first!"

When I saw newly promoted Fox Broadcasting Chairman Peter Rice in the Fox commissary Thursday, I asked the former Fox Searchlight honcho whom he thought would inherit Chernin's dining throne.

In his typical dry manner, Rice quipped: "It will always go to the most powerful person in the room." Though Rice would certainly qualify to be a contender, a Fox snitch said the unassuming executive has no designs on Chernin's table and is perfectly happy with the one he has in the center of the room.

So, that means it will come down to a food fight between his boss, Fox Networks Group chief Tony Vinciquerra, and Fox Filmed Entertainment co-chairmen Tom Rothman and Jim Gianopulos. Then again, there are four chairs, so technically there's room at the same lunch for all those egos.

-- Claudia Eller

'Sopranos' star Edie Falco shines in 'Nurse Jackie'

At work, the smart, sharp-tongued Jackie Peyton (Edie Falco) sneaks off to the bathroom to ingest heavy-duty prescription drugs. Suffering fools gladly â€" especially fools in the medical profession â€" isn’t her strong suit.

The excellent "Nurse Jackie" (9:30 p.m. Central Monday, Showtime; three and a half stars) is no "House" clone. But the two shows have a few things in common: They star spectacular actors who effortlessly convey a character's interior life, and they find humor in some very dark places.

Don't come to "Nurse Jackie" looking for a medical procedural in which a crack staff of good-looking doctors heroically save lives. The doctors here are interested in weird or complicated injuries, not in the people attached to them, and the callow and handsome Dr. Fitch Cooper (Peter Facinelli) is alarmingly likely to cause injury or death with his "care."

Physical (and sometimes emotional) care comes from the harried nurses at All Saints Hospital, where the weary Jackie has worked for years. She's adept at tossing verbal hand grenades at her clueless nursing assistant Zoey Barkow (Merritt Wever), her dragon-lady boss, at Gloria Akalitus (Anna Deavere Smith) and especially at Cooper (who cheerily insists on being called "Coop," despite the fact that All Saints isn't a cheery-nickname kind of place).

But to see Jackie carefully help a 10-year-old sort out her mother's medications is to fall a little in love with this woman, despite her faults. Now is as good a time as any to thank cable television for bringing us women who are as flawed and as fascinating as Gregory House and "Mad Men's" Don Draper. 

"Nurse Jackie" isn't perfect. The show's supporting characters, particularly Paul Schulze ("The Sopranos'" Father Phil) as Jackie's in-hospital pill supplier and Eve Best as an elegant and sardonic physician, have some outstanding moments (and more screen time for the wonderfully subtle Schulze is a must). But Zoey and Mrs. Akalitus come off as one-dimensional much of the time; the former is too dopey and the latter is too mean.

Despite those quibbles, the six episodes Showtime sent for review zipped by, for the most part. The half-hour format is perfect for this deftly directed program, which is character-based storytelling concentrated to espresso strength. The sixth episode of "Nurse Jackie," which was written by former Chicago playwright Rick Cleveland ("Six Feet Under," "Mad Men") had me in tears in less than 30 minutes -- but it also made me laugh out loud more than once. It's moving without relying on sentiment, and guest star Judith Ivey is astonishingly good.

Actually, the show that "Nurse Jackie" may resemble most is HBO's "In Treatment." True, Jackie's story is bleakly funnier than the chronicles of therapist Paul Weston (Gabriel Byrne), but the best episodes of both shows function as emotionally powerful one-act plays about smart, interesting people in crisis.

And like Byrne, Falco is a master of conveying many emotions with few words. Even in silence, she's eloquent.

A note: You can watch the entire first episode of "Nurse Jackie" here.

A reminder: Several cable shows are returning Monday, including "The Closer" (8 p.m. Central, TNT), "Weeds" (9 p.m. Central, Showtime), "Raising the Bar" (9 p.m. Central, TNT) and "Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List" (9 p.m. Central, Bravo).

An admission: I was unable to think up a medicine-related pun for the headline of this review. Apologies for the brain freeze. Feel free to supply a your own headline in comments.

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