So who's the CNN human resources head that Early Show No. 2 Michael Rosen is marrying? She's Jane Caplan, and her reputation certainly precedes her.

We're told that on more than one occasion, Caplan allegedly has interviewed CBS staffers looking for a new gig at CNN, and then passed that information back the tiffany network, where Rosen would have a chance to either a) fire the CBS staffer; b) trash the staffer's reputation at CNN, thus killing any chance they could be hired away. One horror story retold to us went down exactly like Scenario B. But interestingly, another source says Caplan's information trading scored them promotions, having been able to leverage the wrongdoings into better jobs. (Neither Caplan nor Rosen responded to requests for comment.)

But don't think the Rosen-Caplan duo is the only information funnel that has CBS types worried.

CONTINUED »

Was Laurye Blackford's exit from The Early Show not the voluntarily departure we heard it was? Earlier this month we heard the "mean girls" producer gave her two weeks notice when Zev Shalev was installed as interim executive producer.

Now one rumor being floated is that the idea of her exiting the CBS show wasn't something she actually wanted to do, and that she was nudged out the door when her 6-month contract, signed in January, expired. She's said to be weighing a move back to Los Angeles, which might help her escape one unconfirmed rumor we heard that she's secretly living with one of her own staffers, who she hired, here in New York.

Meanwhile, Shalev, who's been on the job just a couple weeks and is well liked by CBS News head Sean McManus (McManus fought with Shelley Ross to bring him on board), is already facing off against Michael Rosen, the show's No. 2 who's been clamoring for the top EP slot himself. The "poor chemistry is visible on the air," reports a spy; timing errors and sloppy live producing are cited as evidence. But Rosen does have something to look forward to: We hear he's getting married to CNN's human resources head this summer.

Which is actually very bad news for any Early Show staffers looking to jump ship: His new wife will be the first to know and, presumably, able to alert Rosen that they're job hunting.

Not that staffers are really expecting him to return in a better mood post-nuptials.

CONTINUED »

There are so many new faces at The Early Show that everyone should be wearing name tags, suggests one insider who's been witness to the super-negativity at the CBS morning program. So many new faces, and not one to recognize.

But at least the A.M. troops have a new leader: Zev Shalev was named interim executive producer, as Jossip was the first to tell you. Now word arrives that CBS brass want to install him as the permanent head, if only to save face amidst a crumbling operation. And while Shalev has been described to us as a decent guy and a robust resume, he's also said to be clueless about how to run things.

As we also told you, in naming Shalev to the EP slot, The Early Show also lost Shelley Ross hire and "mean girl" Laurye Blackford, who quit in protest. Her last day was Thursday. Her slot could be filled by Today's Betsy Alexander, who was brought in to help out with sweeps week, but is still around and is expected to take reigns of Early's second hour.

Meanwhile, those who are still on staff have another reason to groan:

CONTINUED »

With Rick Kaplan gone from The Early Show, and Zev Shalev stepping in, surely everything at the CBS morning show is about to be peaches and cream, right?

You're silly.

Early this week, we told you senior producer Laurye Blackford, a Shelley Ross "mean girl" hire, announced she was quitting. Now we're told she's staying on for a little, but that she'd like be gone in the next two weeks. Yesterday, she finally confirmed to producer colleagues that the rumors she was leaving are true.

But – and there's always a but – Barbara Fedida, CBS's talent/development VP, didn't accept her terms. Those two are supposed to meet by the end of the week to agree on a final date.

As for David Shenfeld, the senior producer who just stopped showing up for work? He hasn't been in the office for three weeks, we're told, and staffers haven't been told whether he is or isn't returning. Perhaps they might be tipped off by the fact that somebody else has already moved into his office, and swapped nameplates on the door?

And then there's this beautiful tidbit of nepotism:

CONTINUED »

JOSSIP REPORTS

Laurye Blackford, one of Shelley Ross' hires and one of the notorious "mean girls" at The Early Show, told bosses yesterday that she's quitting. She submitted her two weeks notice, Jossip hears, in protest of Zev Shalev being named executive producer of the A.M. show, following Rick Kaplan's exit, which we were the first to tell you about this week. (Interesting, because David Shenfeld, the senior producer who stopped showing up for work last week, is said to have left the show because he lost all power to Blackford.)

Blackford was only supposed to be with the show through January, but stayed on because she thought she might be named to Ross' top spot, says a source.

Oh, and in case you missed it in there: Shalev is officially replacing Kaplan.

Might Good Morning America exec producer (and former Early Show producer) Tom Cibrowski – whose name we heard yesterday as one being floated around to take over The Early Show – not be as terrible a guy we said he was? One source told us Cibrowski, seen here with none other than Ben Sherwood, wasn't having his contract renewed when it's up this summer, because it might have something to do with his temper.

But someone has come to his defense!

CONTINUED »

When Rick Kaplan makes his exit from The Early Show on Friday, who's going to replace him? One name being floated to us is Tom Cibrowski, the Good Morning America exec producer. We're told his contract is up this summer and won't be renewed; perhaps because "he is only allowed in the control room two days a week due to his temper"?

Another possibility is Zev Shalev, a Shelley Ross hire from Canada. He's a senior producer at TES right now. One of many. Snipes one source: "He has NO news background, certainly not recently. And the trio – Paul Friedman, Barbara Feddida, and Sean McManus – are simply looking for quick answers."

JOSSIP REPORTS : BREAKING

Might Katie Couric's woes about to take a turn for the better? Or the worse? SO HARD TO TELL!

But one big rumor we are hearing is that executive producer Rick Kaplan, who was brought in to replace Rome Hartman this time last year, is being shown the door at the CBS Evening News. Oh, and The Early Show, where he's interim executive producer.

We're told by an insider that he's being pushed out from his posts — and will hold a staff meeting on Friday, at 9am in the GM studio, where he'll at least tell the staffers he's about to embark on a two-week vacation, but it's unclear whether he'll share with them that the vacation is actually a quiet means of exiting. "I'm sure he won't say anything about not returning," says a source.

Keep in mind: He'll be making his exit during sweeps. So whether he tells his staff the real news or not, they can only assume that the boss man is a goner. After all, under predecessor Shelley Ross, you didn't take time off unless you called in dead.

Why all the drama?

CONTINUED »

The remaining dozen people watching the CBS Evening News are, based on the broadcast's ads, "impotent and incontinent." And like seniors in an old folks home, it'd probably be better just to put 'em down.

THE NEWS SHOW! Not the elderly viewers. That would be cruel and unnecessary.

Actually, argues newlywed Troy Patterson, the entire CBS News division must go. That means The Early Show, 60 Minutes, CBS Sunday Morning, and Katie Couric's $15 million stage. Whether they outsource the thing to CNN as was originally discussed or just throw it off the side of the cliff, hunker down, and pray for daylight, Les Moonves must. give. up.

CONTINUED »

HOLIDAY MALADIES Whoever gave interim Early Show producer Rick Kaplan his own holiday … was probably Rick Kaplan. [TVN]

Regarding today's The Early Show item, where Rick Kaplan's famous temper was matched by anecdote, commenter Melissa Weisberg, of CBS, responds:

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It wouldn't be fair to let Katie Couric have all the drama at CBS this week, so why don't we revisit The Early Show, a place that one spy says simply: "The Titanic is out of deck chairs."

Might the Shelley Ross regime have been better than the current Rick Kaplan affair? The argument is being made.

This week, Claire Peterson, described to us as "one of the strongest" producers and bookers, told Early Show interim exec producer Rick Kaplan that she had an offer from another network, and planned on accepting. (We're told the offer came from ABC's Nightline.)

He didn't give her much of a response. The night she told CBS brass of the job switch, she worked a full day and stayed through the night. Then, at 5:30am, she was awoke by a call from Kaplan, who was phoning from the control room to say he would match the offer she received and pay $5,000 more to keep her.

Yesterday, she and Kaplan finally sat down together, and she declined the offer. That didn't sit well with Kaplan, who is known for his temper. Let's just say he got "very nasty and abusive" …

CONTINUED »

Insisting the exits of a handful of The Early Show staffers was just a part of a corporate restructuring, CBS News goes for overkill to prove its point: It's laying off 1 percent of its entire workforce. (No on-air talent though, thank heavens!) Given that the unit has about 1,200 staffers, that's really just 12 positions gone — far less than the 700 NBC is slashing. And with their morning show exits, aren't we basically halfway there already?

While the existing staff of The Early Show deals with its own dilemma, the saga of executive producer hopeful Ben Sherwood continues. Or maybe it doesn't.

Despite a push from his CAA team on both coasts, we're hearing his chances may be slipping, or have all but disappeared already.

But that won't keep us from bringing you this twenty-year old Spy magazine article! After all, we've already gone through his old emails.

The October 1998 article, posted in full after the jump, profiles Ben when he's a 24-year-old Rhodes scholar at Oxford. What do we learn?

• He went to prep school
• He's the son of a "well-connected Beverly Hills lawyer"
• His parents paid kids to play with him and his siblings
• His Harvard peers bonded over hating Sherwood and his enthusiasm, with one classmate saying people made it their business to dislike him, and with one going so far as to say, "When you think Ben Sherwood, you think funny stories, you think asshole, you think 'Thank God I'm not him.'"
• He thinks Machiavelli is misunderstood
• He likes magic tricks. And mime
• He wanted to lead the Harvard Crimson, and ended up with internships at the Los Angeles Times (no thanks to family friend, publisher Tom Johnson) and CBS before spending three months with the United Nations on the Thailand-Cambodia border (where he discussed fellowships with others) and a stint at the World Bank
• He took an interest in rugby to "lock up my Rhodes," but it's arguable whether he ever played a single game at Harvard. His teammates did like to strip him naked and force beer down his throat, though

CONTINUED »

The Early Show's drama didn't end with Shelley Ross' ouster. Or with last week's exits.

Yesterday, security escorted five staffers and one senior producer out of the building, we're told, in a housecleaning orchestrated by interim exec producer Rick Kaplan and CBS VP of talent/development Barbara Fedida. So the story goes, the removals were all people Ross wanted gone during her tenure. (For its part, CBS denies this was a Kaplan-Fedidia-led ouster, and was merely part of a network-wide restructuring.)

Among those removed? None other than Rob Foreman, the health producer who Ross forced to read an apology to the staff when he dared question one of her decisions. How's that for retaliation?

Not only that, but the senior producer was the show's only black staffer, who was escorted from the building along with the show's only Asian staffer. (CBS assures us this is not the case, and that there are other black and Asian staffers, not just Julie Chen.)

The black producer let go was Anjie Taylor. Jee Won Park is the Asian staffer, who made her hatred of Ross and senior producer Laurye Blackford, cohorts from Good Morning America, well known. (Ross and Blackford were the show's "Mean Girls.")

If you ask CBS, they'll tell you they're moving the show in a different direction and the firings are part of company-wide layoffs. Nevermind that they have double-digit job openings to fill, and everyone who was fired was either over 40 or a minority (CBS says this is untrue).

We're told to expect more blood spilled before someone grabs a mop.

Update: Says CBS in a statement: ""Like many news organizations, print and electronic, CBS News is taking steps to accommodate changes in technology and newsgathering and trying to best utilize our staff. To that end, some open jobs in the division are not going to being filled, some jobs are being redefined, some are being lost and some will be added."

(This item was updated from its original version.)