CBS News chief Sean McManus and Couric last summer

Katie Couric may be mired in third place and has yet to set foot in Iraq, but she's getting the honor rival Brian Williams had last year: hosting the Overseas Press Club Awards in New York.

New York Times op-ed columnist Nick Kristof — who embarks on the "Win a Trip With Nick" contest trip in June — will provide the keynote at next week's ceremony.

CBS News producer Kimberly Dozier, seriously injured last May in a car bombing in Iraq, will accept the President's Award on behalf of all journalists killed or injured in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.

It'll be interesting to see if Couric can handle a live audience of peers as deftly as Williams — whose closet stand-up act definitely helped lift an emotional evening.

The OPC is also using the occasion to announce an online registry of journalists wounded covering the fighting in both Iraq and Afghanistan because, it says, the lists maintained by the Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Without Borders are "fragmented at best."

UPDATE: The list of this year's winners is here.

FishbowlNY's Coverage Of The 2006 OPC Awards: