Melissa Francis jokes that she wants to be writer when she grows up. The Fox Business Network anchor is already on her second career. And with the publication of her memoir, “Diary of a Stage Mother’s Daughter,” she’s on her way to fulfilling that adulthood dream. Francis was feted last night at Astra, an event space overlooking Manhattan’s East River. The memoir is a brutally honest, sometimes painful, yet touching story of life as a child actor. After dozens of commercials, her first big break came on “Little House on the Prairie.”

In a Media Beat interview this summer Francis told us the book, includes “the typical family dramas, set against the backdrop of a very unusual childhood.”

But last night, no drama, just celebrating. Among the guests, FNC/FBN c0-founder and chairman Roger Ailes, FBN EVP Kevin Magee, anchors Neil Cavuto, Liz Claman, Lori Rothman, Cheryl Casone, Elizabeth MacDonald, Tracy Byrnes, Sandra Smith, Nicole Petallides, Tom Sullivan and Dennis Kneale.

From FNC, we spotted Bill Hemmer and chatted with Megyn Kelly about election night, and the moment that took her from the studio through the bowels of Fox News to the decision desk as they explained calling Ohio for Pres. Obama, giving him the election and giving Karl Rove agita. Following many long months of election coverage and, more recently, of Hurricane Sandy, which left her without power for a week, Kelly was looking forward to taking today off.

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Fox Business Network is going into insta-special mode this afternoon.

Gerri Willis will host “Crunch Times: Tim Tebow, Sean Payton, and the Business of the NFL” tonight at 8pmET/PT. The special will take an in-depth look at the league’s volatile post-season leading up to the NFL draft and how the news that Peyton Manning is going to Denver, Tim Tebow has been traded to the New York Jets and the one-season suspension of New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton, will impact the teams’ bottom lines. Willis will be joined by FBN’s Connell McShane, Sandra Smith, and Dennis Kneale to explain the financial impact of the recent moves within the NFL.

After shaking up its primetime, FBN is poised to change up daytime anchor pairings as well. Investor Place reports Dennis Kneale (right), who joined FBN from CNBC in October 2010 will join Cheryl Casone to co-anchor at NoonET while Tracy Byrnes and Ashley Webster will take over as the new anchors of the 2pmET hour. Melissa Francis and Lori Rothman continue at 1pm. The changes are expected next month.

There was a pair of articles on Friday about reporters at the “other” business networks, Bloomberg TV and Fox Business Network, and the two could not be more different.

On one side, there is Marketwatch.com’s profile of Bloomberg TV’s Margaret Brennan. The article uses her recent trip to Cairo to set up the notion that Brennan is poised to lead Bloomberg to higher ratings:

“Bloomberg management recognizes Brennan’s potential to attract a sizable audience during her two-hour show each morning from 10 a.m. to noon Eastern.

“My show is ‘In Business with Margaret Brennan,’” she pointed out. The point is that Bloomberg is choosing to brand its rising star.”

On the other side, there is FBN’s Dennis Kneale:

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Last night TVNewser ventured to the Upper East Side of Manhattan, where Newsweek/Daily Beast editor Tina Brown hosted a party for CNN’s new 9 PM host, Piers Morgan.

In welcoming the guests, Morgan shared a remarkable (if it’s true) story about an encounter he had with Fox News host Bill O’Reilly at a recent New York Knicks game.

Morgan and O’Reilly were in the VIP suite, and having never met the FNC host, Morgan naturally wanted to say hello.

“Obvisouly I marched up, expecting him to shower me with praise about this glorious resurrection of CNN, and he comes up to me and goes, ‘ah, yea, I know you,’” Morgan recalled.

“So I shuffled off meekly,” Morgan said. “Not only is he #1 but he is intimidating, he sort of shooed me away.”

It was Morgan, however, who would get the last laugh a few minutes later, when O’Reilly returned with his teenage daughter:

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On Fox Business yesterday, FBN’s Liz Claman reunited with her old CNBC cohorts Dennis Kneale and Charlie Gasparino. FBN’s Liz MacDonald was also reunited with Gasparino and Kneale: They previously worked at “The Wall Street Journal” together. It’s a small news world.

Former CNBC correspondent Dennis Kneale has officially joined Fox Business Network, Benzinga.com reports. TVNewser first reported the move two weeks ago.

Fox Business has confirmed the report to TVNewser, and also says that Kneale will make his FBN debut Monday, during the 12 PM block anchored by Cheryl Casone.

That would put him head-to-head with the CNBC program he used to appear on “Power Lunch.”

It looks like another CNBC reporter is leaving to join Fox Business Network.

TVNewser hears that Dennis Kneale is expected to join Fox Business in an on-air role covering media and advertising.

We have calls out to Fox Business, and will update when we hear back.

Kneale’s departure is not a surprise. His on-air role at CNBC was diminished over the Summer when he was pulled off the mid-day show “Power Lunch,” and a number of outlets reported that he was likely to leave the network when his contract expired this month.

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CNBC’s Dennis Kneale, who was pulled off of the network’s mid-day show “Power Lunch” in June, may be set to leave the network, according to Daily Finance’s Jeff Bercovici.

Bercovici cites sources as saying that Kneale’s contract, estimated to be worth around $500,000 a year, will not be renewed, but “there’s an outside shot that he could still work out a deal,” provided he accepts a lower salary.

A CNBC spokesman tells TVNewser that “Dennis is currently under contract and I won’t comment on the contract status beyond that.”

Kneale joined CNBC from Forbes in October, 2007.

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“The markets are the world’s greatest Rubik’s cube,” says CNBC’s Rick Santelli. “And I love solving puzzles.”

In fact, as he provides live updates each weekday from the CME (Chicago Mercantile Exchange) group trading floor, Santelli feels his mission is to put the pieces together, helping viewers figure out where the markets — and the nation’s economy — are headed.

“These are important topics that are going to affect every man, woman, and child in the world,” Santelli tells TVNewser during an interview between live shots, “and I want to do my best job to portray it as I see it in an honest, objective fashion.”

A “Chicago guy that started out as a runner” in 1979 for Shearson, Santelli “worked my way through” as a trader and financial services executive before — by fluke — being asked to provide television commentary.

Santelli discovered he liked TV. He started making guest appearances on CNBC in 1994, joining the network full-time in 1999.

Regular viewers soon came to realize Santelli isn’t exactly shy about debating the news of the day. He’ll mix it up with fellow CNBCers Steve Liesman and Dennis Kneale, among others.

Santelli calls his most heated moments “passionate outbursts, but ‘rants’ is okay [too], I really don’t have a problem with it!”

His most famous rant — against the administration’s Homeowners Affordability and Stability Plan — came in February of last year. The Rant-Heard-’Round-the-World catapulted Santelli into the national consciousness, even drawing a rebuke from White House press secretary Robert Gibbs.

Nearly a year and a half later, The Rant remains both popular and misunderstood, Santelli says. He wants to set the record straight.

• Rick Santelli slide show, after the jump…

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