MSNBC: Olbermann, Matthews won’t anchor

New York – MSNBC is replacing Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews as co-anchors of political night coverage with David Gregory, and will use the two newsmen as commentators.

The change reflects tensions between the freewheeling, opinionated MSNBC and the impartial newsgatherers at NBC News. Throughout the primaries and summer, MSNBC argued that Olbermann and Matthews could serve as dispassionate anchors on political news nights and that viewers would accept them in that role, but things fell apart during the conventions.

Gregory, the veteran Washington hand, will anchor MSNBC’s coverage of the presidential and vice presidential debates and election night, network spokesman Jeremy Gaines said Sunday. The change was first reported by The New York Times.

The tipping point appears to have come during the GOP convention when Olbermann criticized MSNBC for showing a Sept. 11-themed video prepared by the Republicans.

During her acceptance speech last week, Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin talked about the “Washington elite” not accepting her qualifications for the job. Some delegates on the convention floor began chanting, “N-B-C, N-B-C.”

Colbert to have his DNA sent into space

New York – Should this world ever cease to exist, Stephen Colbert will live on.

The comedian’s DNA will be digitized and sent to the International Space Station, Comedy Central announced Monday. In October, video game designer Richard Garriott will travel to the station and deposit Colbert’s genes for an “Immortality Drive.”

“I am thrilled to have my DNA shot into space, as this brings me one step closer to my lifelong dream of being the baby at the end of 2001,” Colbert said in a statement, referring to the 1968 landmark science fiction film “2001: A Space Odyssey.”

Garriott, one of few private citizens to travel into space, is collecting material for a time capsule of human DNA, a history of humanity’s greatest achievements and personal messages.

The host of “The Colbert Report” will essentially be preserved so that aliens can clone him.

“In the unlikely event that Earth and humanity are destroyed, mankind can be resurrected with Stephen Colbert’s DNA,” Garriott said in a statement. “Is there a better person for us to turn to for this high-level responsibility?”

DeGeneres returns with 1st show since marriage

New York – Ellen DeGeneres premiered her sixth season as host of “Ellen” with two notable changes: a new studio and a wedding ring.

The syndicated talk show returned Monday with a taped episode from the show’s new set on the Warner Bros. studio lot in Los Angeles. It was DeGeneres’ first show since marrying actress Portia de Rossi in August.

“This is my first show as a married lady,” DeGeneres announced, flashing her wedding ring.

The audience gave her a standing ovation.

DeGeneres, 50, and Rossi were wed in an intimate ceremony at their Beverly Hills home. The Emmy-winning host and Rossi had dated for four years and announced that they would marry after the California Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriages in May.

“Who knew John McCain and I would have something in common,” she joked. “We both chose female running mates.”

J.K. Rowling wins copyright claim

New York – A judge ruled Monday in favor of “Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling in her copyright infringement lawsuit against a fan and Web site operator who was set to publish a Potter encyclopedia.

U.S. District Judge Robert P. Patterson said Rowling had proven that Steven Vander Ark’s “Harry Potter Lexicon” would cause her irreparable harm as a writer. He permanently blocked publication of the reference guide and awarded Rowling and Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. $6,750 in statutory damages.

Rowling and Warner Bros., maker of the Harry Potter films and owner of intellectual property rights to the Potter books and movies, sued Michigan-based RDR Books last year to stop publication of material from the Harry Potter Lexicon Web site.

The small publisher agreed that nearly everything in the lexicon came from Rowling but argued that it was a fair use allowable by law for reference books. In his ruling, Patterson noted that reference materials are generally useful to the public but that in this case, Vander Ark went too far.

Judge: Jury should decide fate of Oscars

Los Angeles – A jury should decide whether silent film star Mary Pickford signed away rights to sell two Oscars she was awarded, a judge ruled Monday.

Three women who inherited the statuettes and a third one awarded to Pickford’s former husband Charles “Buddy” Rogers had hoped to win a dismissal of a lawsuit filed by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The academy, which each year awards film’s highest honor, is seeking to block the public sale of the statuettes.

Pickford won the best actress Oscar in 1930 for “Coquette,” and was given an honorary Oscar in 1976. Rogers won the academy’s Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 1986.