CNN to Bernie: Cut!

ATLANTA: Bernard Shaw's blossoming film career took a hit today when CNN president Tom Johnson said that CNN is reconsidering its policy of allowing its news anchors to play themselves in movies. CNN had been roundly criticized for appearances by 13 CNN on-air personnel in the movie "Contact" delivering fictional news reports about a message from an alien civilization. Earlier, Shaw had appeared in "The Lost World" reporting that dinosaurs had run amok in San Diego. But "Contact" came under special scrutiny because CNN's parent company, Time Warner, also owns Warner Bros., which produced the film. Johnson said he wasn't pressured to lend his journalists to the movie. "It has created a concern among the professional community that we are being manipulated by Time Warner," he said. "We are not. Categorically we are not." He added, however: "It's fair to say it does blur the line." One CNN employee who appears safe from any possible repercussions: Larry King, who appears in "Contact" and has also shot scenes for the upcoming movies "Primary Colors" and "Mad City." CNN explained that it does not consider King, a celebrity interviewer, to be in the same category as journalists and anchors.