Former CNN correspondent Kelli Arena popped up during CNN’s “The Situation Room” last night, her first time back on-air at the network since her departure more than two years ago.

Arena was on-set for a conversation with Wolf Blitzer, for her perspective on recent developments in Egypt.  For the past year, Arena has been doing strategic communications consulting in Egypt, working with women political candidates, youth groups, civic society groups, and nonprofit organizations.

Arena’s CNN interview follows other on-air appearances on truTV and on Bloomberg TV.   In addition to her consulting work, Arena also is teaching a reporting course at Sam Houston State University in Texas.

A large crowd of former and current CNNers gathered at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Saturday night to celebrate the network’s thirtieth birthday.

The bash — an unofficial gathering organized by former CNN producer Elissa Free — drew over three hundred people and was emceed by former CNN anchor Bernard Shaw.

“It was a celebration of what we had built,” former CNN correspondent Kelli Arena tells TVNewser. Arena, who started her career at CNN in 1984, said that joining the then-four-year-old network “was a labor of love… There was an energy and an innocence about the place. We brought live to the air things that people had never seen live on the air before.”

CNN founder Ted Turner addressed the group, telling attendees he was proud of what staffers have accomplished. Former CNN president Tom Johnson also spoke.

Current CNNers in attendance included anchor Wolf Blitzer, News Standards and Practices EVP Rick Davis, Political Director Sam Feist, and correspondent Jeanne Meserve.

Former CNNers in the house included Cissy Baker, Ralph Begleiter, Charles Bierbauer, Mike Boettcher, Tony Collings, Roger Cossack, Patty Davis, Bill Dorman, Rusty Dornin, Bob Franken, David French, Frances Hardin, Leon Harris, Sandy Kenyon, Jamie McIntyre, Brooks Jackson, Kathleen Koch, Eileen O’Connor, Chris Plante, Frank Sesno, Mark Shields, Linda Taira, Mary Alice Williams, and Judy Woodruff.

“It was a lot of reminiscing about the little network that could,” Arena said. “There was no griping, no discussion about the current CNN — that’s not why people were there. People were there to celebrate what we had accomplished. It was like a family reunion.”

More photos, after the jump…

(photo by Richard Kolko)

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Former CNN correspondent Kelli Arena will pop up on Bloomberg TV as a freelance reporter the week of April 5, TVNewser has learned.

“It’s very exciting for me to return to my roots as a business reporter,” Arena tells TVNewser. Arena spent fifteen years of her CNN career covering business, both as a reporter and as a producer for shows like Lou Dobbs Moneyline.

Arena, who exited CNN in December of 2008, is also teaching at Texas’ Sam Houston State University as the first recipient of the Dan Rather Chair in Mass Communications.

With confirmation hearings for Judge Sonia Sotomayor now underway, truTV has booked former CNN Justice Department/Supreme Court correspondent Kelli Arena to help provide analysis during an on-air panel discussion today, TVNewser has learned.

Arena is scheduled to be a guest during the 9-11 amET block anchored by Ashleigh Banfield. It’ll be Arena’s second appearance on truTV, having also been a guest once earlier this year.

Arena departed CNN last December during a wave of layoffs. Insiders say CNN does not intend to replace her on the Supreme Court beat.

The Sonia Sotomayor confirmation hearings are underway on Capitol Hill. The three cable news channels are covering them live, as is PBS. HLN is keeping a small box in the lower right corner reminding anyone watching in an airport that the hearings are on. And PBS is doing it old-school — no banners, no boxes. The cable nets are taking commercials. At 10:44am, CNN was in a break when a protester had to be removed from the hearing room. The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Patrick Leahy warned, “I will direct the police to remove anybody who does any kind of an outburst either for or against the nominee.”

• On FNC, Megyn Kelly and Bret Baier kicked off coverage at 9amET. Carl Cameron is in the hearing room with additional coverage from Major Garrett Chris Wallace, Juan Williams, and Supreme Court correspondent Shannon Bream, featured in her hometown South Florida Sun-Sentinel on Saturday, will contribute throughout the hearing.

• On CNN, Wolf Blitzer is anchoring special coverage joined by Gloria Borger, Candy Crowley, John King, Jeffrey Toobin, and Jessica Yellin. CNN has not replaced, and insiders tell us does not have plans to replace former Supreme Court correspondent Kelli Arena.

• On MSNBC, Chris Matthews is anchoring with Andrea Mitchell on set, Norah O’Donnell on the Hill and reports from NBC’s justice correspondent Pete Williams.

> Update: FNC, CNN and MSNBC went away from the Senators’ opening statements at the Sotomayor hearing to take live coverage of Pres. Obama naming Dr. Regina Benjamin as his Surgeon General nominee. CNN and MSNBC remained with the White House announcement through Dr. Benjamin’s comments.

Alissa Krinsky
TVNewser Contributor

“There’s life after whatever job you’re in now,” says former HLN anchor Linda Stouffer.

Stouffer was laid off in December after 12 years at the network.

She was not alone. Dozens of tvnewsers, on air and off, were let go at the end of 2008, as the industry reacted to a turbulent economy. Kevin Corke, John Larson and Mark Mullen of NBC lost their jobs. So did CNN’s Kathleen Koch and Rusty Dornin, HLN’s Carrie Lee, and numerous other journalists at those networks and at CBS News, too. ABC News laid off 35 staffers earlier this year.

Stouffer may have been in good company, but she was still looking to get back to work.

And she did. Three months after leaving HLN, she was picked up by Atlanta’s ABC station, WSB-TV. Stouffer is reporting part-time, hoping “to have some anchor opportunities down the line.”

Good news after an initial jolt. “Job loss is an earthquake of an experience,” says Stouffer, who first took time to “take stock, to see what I wanted to do next.”

It was her “big think.”

After also being laid off in December, former CNN Justice Department/Supreme Court correspondent Kelli Arena has had the chance to reflect, too.

“I’m doing great,” she says. “I had been working non-stop until now.

“The opportunity to just slow down, and take a breath, and not be ruled by my Blackberry is a tremendously different life than the one I had before,” she says.

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TVNewser has confirmed two more on-air talent leaving CNN: Headline News anchor Linda Stouffer (pictured) and longtime CNN correspondent Rusty Dornin.

Stouffer’s last day with the network was yesterday. She had been with Headline News since 1997. Stouffer is married to CBS News reporter Mark Strassman.

Dornin has been with CNN since 1991. She was most recently based in Atlanta but had been in the San Francisco bureau for many years. She’s covered stories ranging from the California governor’s recall to the murder of Laci Peterson.

Since Friday, TVNewser has reported four other correspondents leaving the network, including Jamie McIntyre and Kelli Arena. The email Arena sent to her colleagues is after the jump…

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TVNewser has confirmed CNN Headline News afternoon anchor Carrie Lee is leaving the network. Her last day is Tuesday.

The New York-based anchor has been with the network since 2001.

FishbowlDC reports Kelli Arena, Justice Department/Supreme Court correspondent, is leaving CNN.

Yesterday we reported correspondents Jamie McIntyre and Kathleen Koch were leaving the network as well.

• Related: Greta Van Susteren blasts her former employer on Gretawire. “They did it again!” she writes. “CNN fires people just in time for Christmas! Make you sick? People often ask why I left CNN…I didn’t like management…CNN fires loyal people to meet some bottom line the management failed to meet.”