ABC’s Diane Sawyer scored what’s probably the biggest get of the week: an exclusive interview with Andrew Speaker, otherwise known as the globetrotting Tuberculosis patient who criss-crossed countries and continents on planes (Atlanta to Paris to Greece to Prague to Montreal to New York) despite warnings not to travel. He is now in government-ordered isolation in a Denver hospital.

This exclusive interview will air tomorrow on Good Morning America.

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BookExpo America 2007, the nation’s largest publishing convention, kicks off at the Javits Center today. One of this year’s major convention sponsors will be, of all things, MySpace. The social networking ubernetwork, which recently launched MySpace Books, will be hosting a panel on networking and surviving as a supporting sponsor. BookExpo America already has an officially-sanctioned MySpace group with over 300 members. However, MySpace will not be the only social networking site with a presence at BEA. The quasi-Amazon affiliated Last.FM-inspired site Shelfari will be making its industry premiere at the convention as well.

Scheduled speakers on BEA panels include Joyce Carol Oates, Valerie Plame, Francine Prose and — oh, God — Christopher Hitchens.

Speaking of which, mediabistro.com is throwing a BookExpo publishing party — hosted by GalleyCat bloggers Ron Hogan and Sarah Weinman and white-hot author Dana Vachon — tonight:

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Following the latest wrinkle in the Jared Paul Stern-Page Six Fix scandal, Nello’s Nello Balan defended his $1,000 gift to Page Six‘s Richard Johnson in this week’s New York magazine.

“Parties, strippers, $50,000 trips, and what everybody focuses on is that Christmas gift in 1997. It’s impossible that I was thinking if I give a Christmas gift that would influence someone’s opinion of me or do something for me. There’s nothing behind that Christmas gift. It’s not an obligation. It’s a thought.”

We asked three former Page Sixers — Jared Paul Stern, Fernando Gil, Ian Spiegelman — what, exactly, $1,000 could buy you at Page Six.

Stern said something about Col Allan‘s “y-front” pants. Gil dodged the question (“I think that money would be better spent on weed.”) Spiegelman, though, gave us this answer:

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Yet another Huffington Post hire of note: The impossibly-named Willow Bay, former CNN, ABC and MSNBC anchor and wife of Walt Disney CEO Robert Iger, has signed up with Arianna Huffington‘s tribe as editor-at-large.

Bay will oversee HuffPo’s new lifestyle section, Living Now, as well as contribute to the site’s widening content.

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Last night at the All Things Digital Conference in Carlsbad, California, an impossibly historic meeting for tech nerds took place: Microsoft’s Bill Gates and Apple’s Steve Jobs, together on one stage. (It was sorta like a meeting between Luke Skywalker and Captain Kirk, for you nerds of another galaxy).

The event, of course, was sold out, but you can watch all of it here.

Said Gates: “We’ve kept our marriage secret for over a decade now.”

(Funny, that’s exactly the type of titillating discussion Star Wars and Star Trek nerds partake in.)

Those hoping for fireworks, though, were disappointed. Gates: “I don’t think either of us has anything to complain about. … I miss some people who’ve left the industry. It’s nice to have someone like Steve around.”

EARLIER:

There would appear to be few taboos Comedy Central — and its presumably harried legal department — would ultimately to shy away from. Sh*t? Uncensored? 161 times? Check. Jon Stewart air-skullf*cking Hitler? Check. Sarah Silverman sleeping with a black God then kicking him out of bed? Check. Check.

But it seems when it comes to AIDS jokes, Comedy Central has a bit of a double standard. In the June issue of Maxim, Silverman says the network strategically cut a line from one of her hit show’s episodes.

“In the AIDS episode, the doctor says, ‘You do have … no AIDS!’ And after that he was going to say to the other guy, ‘You do have … AIDS!’” Silverman explained. “Comedy Central said, ‘You can’t have someone get AIDS in a joke.’ As much as I loved how the cadences matched but had severely different outcomes, I couldn’t argue with that one.”

True, it would seem to be reasonable logic, except the network aired an entire episode of South Park — “Jared Has AIDES” — based on the same, endless joke. Oddly, Comedy Central has been reluctant to re-air the March 6, 2002 episode due to controversy surrounding a scene in which the character “Butters” is beaten by his family after a British television station banned the episode. (The episode appears uncut on DVD.)

So, what exactly is Comedy Central’s AIDS joke policy?

The network declined to comment.

EARLIER:

The New York Times has never been a friend of CNN’s Lou Dobbs. (Smarmy mentions in Frank Rich op-eds? Check. Offhand digs by Joseph Lelyveld in the Magazine? Check.)

So no surprise that the Times tried to push the Lou Dobbs leprosy controversy thread. (You’ll recall Dobbs claimed there were 7,000 cases of leprosy in the U.S. in the past three years; there were 7,000 cases of leprosy in the last 30. When confronted with the error by 60 Minutes, Dobbs denied he got anything wrong.)

A talk show host bloviating? Shocking. But the Southern Poverty Law Center took out advertisements in the New York Times and USA Today demanding CNN run a correction. They haven’t.

Dobbs has engaged in quite a bit of SPLC baiting. But Dobbs’ baiting with “untruths,” the Times says, has painted CNN — and its “trusted” tagline into a tight corner:

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On the menu today: a tasty stew of media moguls and television titans with a dash of talking heads to spice things up. After making the rounds and checking in with some of our favorite regulars, we were thrilled to chat with our good pals Today’s Meredith Vieira and Al Roker. The always affable Ms. Vieira (who we’ve not seen at Michael’s before) and Mr. Roker told lunchtime chronicler Diane Clehane that plans are in the works for the show to travel to China this summer to do some segments as a walk up to next year’s blowout Olympic coverage in Beijing. “Meredith is going to be skateboarding on the Great Wall,” joked Al. Somehow, we wouldn’t put it past Today.

Here’s the rundown on the rest of the crowd:

1. The Early shift: Charlie Rose and Neal Shapiro; late shift: Cheri Kaufman of Kaufman Astoria Studios.

2. Nightline‘s Cynthia McFadden (sporting a great tan), Silda Wall Spitzer (wife of Governor Spitzer) and her director of Children for Children Margo Jones.

3. Mayor Joe Armstrong (who was happy to show us that Jimmy Buffett signed his “boot” — which doubles as a vase — on his last visit while Joe was away). Joe was dining with two lovely ladies: Dr. Sarah Simms Rosenthal and Jane Hartley. When we complimented Dr. Simms Rosenthal, an Ali McGraw lookalike, on her stunning summer ensemble, she told us she’s actually turned last year’s dress into a fabulous white embroidered skirt which she was wearing with a classic black T-shirt. Tres chic!

4. Time Inc.’s John Huey.

5. Gerald Schoenfeld, chairman of the Schubert Organization.

6. Fashion central: Cece Cord, Cameron Silver, owner of Decades, the haute Los Angeles boutique, Becca Cason Thrash and IMG’s The Daily Jim Shi. (Thanks for filling us in, Jim!)

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