BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. – Katie Couric is getting ready to star in a daytime talk show, but she dreams of starring in a Broadway musical.

The ABC newswoman and TV personality listed several items Thursday from her personal bucket list that also includes going on a date with George Clooney and jumping out of an airplane, despite her fear of heights.

Speaking to reporters at the Television Critics Association conference, Couric said she’s excited to be starting from scratch with her new program “that tackles some of the things that you think are important, that you think people want to know more about.”

Asked if she’s nervous as the Sept. 10 launch date approaches, she confessed, “I think I’m a little scared. If I weren’t, I’d worry.”

Lighting up the Great White Way may be out of Couric’s reach — at least, based on experience.

“When I auditioned for my high school musical, ‘Carnival,’ ” Couric recalled, “they cast me as the deaf mute. Very humiliating. I objected, and then they gave me the part of the dancing bear.”

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Tapping into viewers’ bucket lists (or, in hipper parlance, YOLO, for “You Only Live Once”) will be a feature of “Katie,” the syndicated hour that’s among several contenders to fill the void still felt by the absence of Oprah Winfrey’s hugely popular show.

“Katie” will deal with more substantive issues as well. Couric said she had already reached out to presidential candidates President Obama and Mitt Romney, as well as their wives “and anyone else in their family they’d like to bring.”

She has also invited Sarah Palin, whom she famously interviewed while at CBS News during the 2008 campaign, exposing Palin in the minds of many viewers as ill-prepared to be the GOP vice presidential candidate.

None of these invitees have responded yet, Couric said.

Couric announced that the show’s theme song, “This Day,” was written and performed by superstar Sheryl Crow.

Brand ordered to perform community service

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NEW ORLEANS – Actor and comedian Russell Brand must perform 20 hours of community service and pay a $500 court fee to resolve a misdemeanor charge over a confrontation with a photographer in New Orleans, where he was filming a movie in March.

Brand wasn’t in a New Orleans courtroom Thursday when his attorney, Robert Glass, entered a not-guilty plea on his behalf to a charge of simple criminal damage to property. The charge carries a maximum sentence of six months in jail.

Brand turned himself in to police three days after his encounter with a man trying to take his picture with a phone. Police said Brand grabbed the phone and threw it at a building, breaking a window.

Jackson mom is back home with children

LOS ANGELES – Katherine Jackson is apparently back home, reuniting with Michael Jackson’s children after a judge temporarily took away her guardianship because of her dayslong absence from them.

Paris Jackson tweeted early Thursday: “grandma’s here! (hash)thankyougod.”

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On Wednesday, a judge removed Katherine Jackson as guardian temporarily and named her grandson Tito Joe “TJ” Jackson as temporary caretaker of the late legend’s three minor children amid a bitter family dispute over Michael Jackson’s estate.

Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff issued the ruling because Katherine Jackson was in Arizona and hadn’t spoken with the children in several days.

TJ Jackson now has the ability to control the hilltop home where the children live and to take on other supervision duties.

Katherine Jackson told ABC News that the court ruling was “based on a bunch of lies.”

“I am devastated that while I’ve been away, that my children, my grandchildren, have been taken away from me, and I’m coming home to see about that, also,” she said.

– From news service reports


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