If you wanted to call a CBS Sports quorum last Tuesday, you had to go to New York’s Marriott Marquis, where LeslieAnne Wade, the division’s communications VP, was among the three WISE Women being recognized by Women In Sports and Events.
CBS Sports President Sean McManus said a few words on behalf of the woman who usually speaks for him and his department. Noting that she can play “tough as nails” or “gently persuasive” as needed, he launched into a list of things Ms. Wade might do on any given day. That “schedule” incorporated jokes about everyone from Masters combatants Martha Burke and Hootie Johnson to hypercompetitive members of CBS’s NFL broadcast team: “4 p.m.: Reassure Boomer Esiason that he is funnier and better looking than Phil Simms. 4:05 p.m.: Reassure Phil Simms that he is funnier and better looking than Boomer Esiason.”
The very expectant Ms. Wade paid tribute to role models such as CBS Sports producer Suzanne Smith and broadcaster Lesley Visser and delivered one of the extreme understatements of the year in describing herself as “about nine months pregnant.”
The other honorees were Dockery Clark, the senior VP and national director for Olympics, sports and event marketing for Bank of America; and Deborah Yow, University of Maryland director of athletics.
Payin’ and Sufferin’: Part II
Remember that little $108 million-plus lawsuit Fox Television Stations lobbed, without public explanation, at UPN in February? Well, The Insider recently went a-courting and learned that UPN’s lawyers responded in May with a request for dismissal and a long list of answers to a long list of questions in the original breach of contract complaint. The aforementioned complaint was not in the file. Some spoilsport apparently got the complaint sealed. But The Insider hears that monies paid to Chicago UPN affiliate WPWR-TV under an affiliation agreement hammered out in 1997 are at the heart of the action by Fox, which had acquired WPWR from Newsweb Corp. in August for $425 million. Fox alleges UPN breached the most-favored-nations clause that should have resulted in WPWR-like compensation going to stations owned by former UPN partner Chris-Craft Industries, including WWOR-TV, New York, and KCOP-TV, Los Angeles, both also now owned by Fox. Word is that barring a dismissal of the suit, in which Fox seeks interest on that $108 million compounded back to Sept. 25, 1997, UPN seeks to move the case to California, in which UPN is headquartered. Stay tuned. The Insider pledges to track this suit because she just loves the headline on this item. Words to live by. Words to live by.