• MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski opens up in MORE magazine about her struggles with an eating disorder: “Food was the thing I could count on. Food always loved me back.”

• Tonight, Scott Pelley will be presented an Overseas Press Club Award for his “60 Minutes” interview with a Navy SEAL who was in the room when Osama Bin Laden was killed.

• Politico reports CNN is in discussions with former GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich and Obama deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter as the network plans the revival of “Crossfire.” TVNewser first reported news of the show’s return.

Newt Gingrich was on “The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer” today and during their conversation Blitzer asked the former GOP presidential candidate and Fox News analyst what he thought about Roger Ailes calling him a “prick” in an upcoming biography about the FNC chairman.

GINGRICH: Roger is a big boy. He’s said lots of things about lots of people in his career. I’ve been around a long time. I’ve had lots of different people say things about me.

BLITZER: You haven’t spoken to him… since those quotes came out?

GINGRICH: No, I talked to him a couple of weeks ago. We’re — we’re fine. It’s not — we don’t have any personality fight.

BLITZER: That’s that. You’re a big boy. He’s a big boy. And we move on.

Vanity Fair has an excerpt from the upcoming biography of Roger Ailes by Zev Chafets. The excerpt is primarily about Ailes the man, not Ailes the executive, though that isn’t to say there aren’t some interesting TV angles.

The relationship between Ailes and Rupert Murdoch is one of respect, and money:

Ailes and Rupert Murdoch are very respectful of each other. Ailes credits Murdoch with realizing that there was a niche audience (“half the country,” as Charles Krauthammer, a Fox contributor, drily put it) for a cable news network with a conservative perspective. Murdoch, for his part, assured me that he doesn’t dictate editorial decisions. “I defer to Roger,” he said. “I have ideas that Roger can accept or not. As long as things are going well … ”

FBN is building out a large studio space on the ground floor of 47th street and sixth avenue. At the Fox Sports upfront (more on that later), executives indicated that they may take advantage of the studio space too. Regardless of what shows are being produced, they are ready for anything:
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CNN is treating tomorrow’s “State of the Union” coverage like an election night, loading up on political anchors and analysts. Coverage will be led by Wolf Blitzer, Anderson Cooper, Chris Cuomo, Jake Tapper, Kate Bolduan and Erin Burnett, who will be overseeing a focus group reacting to the speech. Dana Bash will be in the House Chamber while Jessica Yellin reports from the White House. John King will be on “Magic Wall” duty, with John Berman and Tom Foreman in the “virtual studio” to offer “reality checks” of the President’s remarks, and the Republican response.

On the analysis side, former Fox News contributor Newt Gingrich and former Current TV anchor Jennifer Granholm will provide insider analysis, with Gloria Borger, David Gergen, Cornell Belcher, Donna Brazile, Alex Castellanos, Margaret Hoover, Van Jones and Ana Navarro also weighing in throughout the night.

One person who apparently will not be appearing on CNN’s SOTU coverage is the anchor of CNN’s “State of the Union,” Candy Crowley. Crowley hosted her weekend program from DC yesterday, and previewed the SOTU on “CNN Newsroom” yesterday afternoon.

Update: CNN says that Crowley is out of town, caring for her mother. Hence, she won’t be able to participate in the coverage.

More info, below.
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Fox News’s “The Five” has gone from zero to 2.1 million (viewers) in just the last year and is now FNC’s third most-watched show. So we wanted to hear from the hosts about what makes the show successful. Here are 5 questions for “The Five” hosts, plus 2 bonus questions for the alternates.

TVNewser to Eric Bolling: What is the one ingredient of the show that is making it click with viewers?

Eric Bolling: I think the secret ingredient is that we all get along extremely well. That’s real, not forced and I suspect the audience can sense that. Mr. Ailes came up with a unique show idea and that was impressive. Then he found a group of people who get along and enjoy each other’s perspective and input. For that Ailes is a genius!

TVNewser to Kimberly Guilfoyle: After your role as prosecutor in a San Francisco dog mauling case, you started getting TV offers from CourtTV, CNN, MSNBC before joining Fox in 2006. What do you miss most about your life as a prosecutor and how often do you find yourself using those skills on The Five?

Kimberly Guilfoyle: I think what I like the most about my change in profession from a prosecutor is that I am able to be an advocate for families, victims of major crimes, or individuals who do not normally have a voice or someone to speak for them and get the story out to the public. As a prosecutor, you are always arriving at an issue or case after the injustice has occurred. As a host and journalist on The Five and a legal and political analyst at Fox News I am able to tackle issues and stories and bring them to the public’s attention especially when the mainstream isn’t covering a story.

TVNewser to Greg Gutfeld: Since the show is live at 5pm (not taped and airing at 3am) how often to you have to check yourself before saying something that might not go over well with the audience or your co-hosts?

Greg Gutfeld: I never do. The whole point of doing something live is the risk. And I figure if you run something by someone, you ruin the spontaneity of the moment.  But If I think that what I might say might hurt their feelings, then I won’t do it.  Like yesterday,  I was going to bring up something that happened before the show. There was a group of school kids in studio for a tour. One of the children had asked Dana if he could take her picture. Dana said, “Do I go to your school and ask to take a picture of you?” Dana had a point, but that didn’t stop the child from crying. I was going to bring that up on the show, but I didn’t want to embarrass Dana, despite her obvious insensitivity towards America’s youth.

TVNewser to Dana Perino: Which do you like better: being a member of the media or keeping the press in check, which was part of your job as White House press secretary?

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There were a pair of big interviews on cable news this week, both of the very different in both tone and content.

As we noted, CNN secured the first TV interview with Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng, who told Anderson Cooper “I didn’t see much hope” while being detained by Chinese authorities:

On MSNBC, Chris Matthews had a sometimes contentious, often funny interview with former GOP Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich. Among the revelations: his favorite snake is a python:

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As you know by now, Greta Van Susteren invited two Kardashians and a Lohan to the White House Correspondents’ Dinner last night. Not surprisingly, Kim Kardashian and Lindsay Lohan (and Keith Olbermann, Barack Obama, Barbara Walters, cable news, Newt Gingrich, and more) made it into Jimmy Kimmel‘s monologue. At one point Kimmel asks Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, “Would you do us a favor? Would you mind driving Lindsay Lohan home? … Make sure you do not run into a goose. Especially a grey goose.”

That’s Greta’s husband John P. Coale sitting between Lohan and Kardashian. Our spies tell us Lohan did eat, but did not drink.

Fox News anchor Bret Baier fought back against GOP candidate Newt Gingrich‘s assertion that the channel has been in the tank for Mitt Romney and Gingrich’s claim that “CNN is less biased than FOX this year.”

Baier and his team did the math and found out, in terms of airtime on Fox News, Gingrich nearly doubled Romney. Of course that’s just one measurement, and more appearances, at least in Gingrich’s mind, doesn’t add up to balanced coverage. WATCH:

Fox News is not taking Newt Gingrich‘s excoriation of the network’s coverage of the GOP primary as a mere swipe and moving on. Did you expect them to?

On Wednesday Gingrich told a Tea Party group in Delaware that, “CNN is less biased than Fox this year,” adding, “We are more likely to get neutral coverage out of CNN than we are of FOX, and we’re more likely to get distortion out of FOX. That’s just a fact.”

A Fox News spokeswoman tells Yahoo! News‘s Dylan Stableford, “This is nothing other than Newt auditioning for a windfall of a gig at CNN — that’s the kind of man he is.”

“Not to mention, he’s still bitter about the fact that we terminated his contributor contract.”

RealClearPolitics had access to a meeting in Dover, Delaware Wednesday held by Newt Gingrich. During the get-together with members of the Delaware Tea Party, Gingrich, a former Fox News analyst, lambasted the channel.

“I think FOX has been for Romney all the way through,” said Gingrich, adding, “Callista and I both believe CNN is less biased than FOX this year. We are more likely to get neutral coverage out of CNN than we are of FOX, and we’re more likely to get distortion out of FOX. That’s just a fact.”

Gingrich revealed he’s been invited by CNN to one of their tables at an upcoming political correspondents dinner. “The only press events I go to are interesting dinners when the wife insists on it, so we’re going to go to the White House Correspondents’ dinner because she wants to. And we’re actually going to go to CNN’s table, not FOX.”

Fox News terminated its contracts with Gingrich and with Rick Santorum last May when both missed a deadline to inform Fox News if they were entering the GOP race. Both eventually did get in. Just yesterday we reported on Santorum’s future since bowing out, and how it will likely not include a return to Fox News.