Though Ben Sherwood may be the leading candidate to take over Shelley Ross' executive producer job at The Early Show, network brass is fuming over reports in Page Six that are said to have been leaked by Sherwood himself, or from inside his camp.

On Thursday, Page Six reported that at the funeral of GMA producer James Bogdonoff, ABC anchor Charlie Gibson muttered, "It took us six years to get rid of her. How come it only took them [CBS] five months?" From inside CBS, we're told Les Moonves & Co. understand Sherwood fed that item, and they're furious he'd go to such lengths to sabotage his predecessor.

And it's not just them. Gibson is raging, too, that P6 ran that quote, and more furious since he too suspects it was Sherwood-provided. (These two know each other from Sherwood's days at ABC; he exec produced GMA through 2006, after he returned from writing novels for two years after leaving his No. 2 producer gig at NBC Nightly News.)

But all of that might be swept under the carpet, eventually. We're told Sherwood retains his lead role on the list Early Show job candidates because of a strong personal friendship, beginning in college, with a senior CBS News executive.

As Steve Forbes is apt to repeat from his father: "There is nothing wrong with nepotism so long as you keep it in the family." Or, at the very least, the university class.