REGIS RETURNS
He’s baaaack! Talk show host Regis Philbin returned to his day job (and a standing ovation by hundreds of fans) today—six weeks after undergoing triple heart bypass surgery.
Did you get to see any part of his return on “Live With Regis and Kelly?” I saw bits and pieces and agree with everyone who expressed amazement at how well Philbin looks. (Hard to believe he’s 75!)
As promised David Letterman, host of CBS'”Late Show,” was Philbin’s first guest. Letterman called it “payback time.” (Philbin was a guest host when Letterman underwent heart bypass surgery in 2000).
Philbin mentioned he lost 8 pounds and is still in some pain, but was happy to be “home.”
Frankly, I don’t know what I would do without this morning show,” he told reporters. “It’s a wonderful show. … But now it’s a part of my life.”
Frankly, I can’t wait to watch tomorrow’s show when Philbin’s wife Joy is scheduled to appear and discuss the gory details about having to nurse the talk show host back to health.
Should be interesting… and amusing.
DANNIELYNN SAYS BYE-BYE TO THE BAHAMAS
It’s the only home Anna Nicole Smith’s baby daughter has ever known and now she is saying bye-bye to the Bahamas.
According to news reports, a Bahamas judge has issued an order that clears Dannielynn’s biological father Larry Birkhead to leave the country with her.
In a statement to reporters Birkhead said he plans to take the infant home to the U.S. tomorrow. While Smith’s former boyfriend has an apartment in California, sources say the photographer will first travel with the 7-month-old to his boyhood home of Louisville, Kentucky, where his ailing father is looking forward to meeting his granddaughter.
As for Stern (who was listed as Dannielynn’s father on her birth certificate), according to TV’s “Access Hollywood,” he will remain in the Bahamas and is expected to write a book about his life with Smith.
Meanwhile, Stern’s pals recently told TV reporters that Smith’s former companion is “upset and heartbroken” and finds himself facing the reality of being “single and on his own for the first time in many years.”
WOODRUFF HEADS OVERSEAS
ABC news reporter Bob Woodruff is about to embark on his first overseas assignment since being severely injured by a roadside bomb in Iraq last year.
According to executives at ABC, Woodruff is headed to Havana this weekend. What’s more, cameraman Doug Vogt and sound technician Magnus Macedo, the same two men who were present during the fateful Iraq trip, are accompanying Woodruff. (You’ll recall that Woodruff suffered traumatic brain injuries in the Jan. 29, 2006, bombing while Vogt suffered other serious injuries.)
Woodruff will be filing reports on May Day commemorations in Cuba, which will air on “World News” on Sunday and continue during the week.