Facetime

The media has been filled with reports of a boardroom coup (with Ted Turner as one of the ringleaders) under way at AOL Time Warner that would have Steve Case (above) dumped as chairman of the company he helped create.

But Case was showing no visible signs of stress last week, as he fielded questions at the Goldman Sachs media conference. He even said the "right role for me is to be more active now than in the past." He said he sees himself as a "partner" with CEO Dick Parsons.

No mention of Turner by Case, although earlier at the conference Disney CEO Michael Eisner praised him for his "keen spirit" and "fantastic job" of inventing the cable news business.

Ted Danson (second from l), former star of Cheers and current star of CBS's Becker, and Dick Wolf (second from r), creator of NBC's highly successful Law & Order franchise, were honored in Beverly Hills, Calif., Sept. 30 by the Museum of Television and Radio for "significantly contributing to the development of quality prime-time entertainment." Flanking Danson and Wolf above are museum President Bob Batscha (l) and Chairman Frank Bennack.

Wolf, who hit it big with 1984's Miami Vice, told the audience that he was driven to crime dramas when he received horrible reviews for a comedy he worked on. Danson, after a warm introduction by wife Mary Steenburgen, jokingly asked, "Isn't there a plaque or something?" and went on to thank a long list of supporters.

The Wall Street crowd attending a Q&A session with Viacom COO Mel Karmazin (below) at Goldman Sachs's media conference last week wanted to know what the odds were that he would re-up his contract, set to expire at the end of this year.

It's no secret that Karmazin has locked horns with CEO Sumner Redstone more than once over the past two years.

But Karmazin wouldn't give much away. With or without him, he said, "the company would continue to do well. Don't place a bet based on one individual," he added, "because that person may go and get on the wrong airplane."