Walker hits streets with new show

Liz Walker is back on television in perhaps her best role yet.

Tomorrow morning at 11, she will debut in the first episode of her new CBS4 community affairs program, ''Sunday With Liz Walker."

The feel-good show is soft in tone, perfect for a weekend morning with coffee and a croissant. Yet the veteran news anchor has not resorted to puff. No, with a pleasant smile on her face, Walker asks plenty of probing questions during her 30 minutes.

Instead of a predictable panel discussion about problems in the schools, Walker takes her camera to the street to interview four people about various aspects of the topic of the week.

This time around, that topic is passion -- for the political process, for music, for football, and for writing.

The first segment features a quirky 94-year-old woman running for US senator in New Hampshire. The ensuing dialogue about the apathetic nature of Americans is an appealing slice-of-life story and an alternative to the crush of Sunday morning political shows.

An on-set interview with Cambridge author Gish Jen, who wrote ''Love Wife," is probably the best segment in tomorrow's episode. Her story about being in a racially mixed marriage and being mistaken frequently as her baby's nanny makes for good viewing.

The live, on-set performance of local pianist Paul White, who plays the keys softly in the background, is a nice touch also, giving the show the feel of a Sunday brunch.

To be sure, Walker, who gave up her anchor chair in January after 25 years on the news desk, will need to work on her subject material. Stories about voting and Patriots football would have been perfect last fall. Now they just seem dated.

But in a television landscape virtually devoid of this type of on-the-street local programming (one notable exception is WCVB-TV's ''Chronicle"), Walker is definitely on the right track.

If she keeps it up, she will surely have a larger impact than she ever did behind the desk at noon.

Ch. 56 kicks off news magazine

WLVI-TV (Channel 56) is launching a news magazine tonight, ''New England Living," that will profile areas of the region each week. Tonight's episode, which airs at 11, will focus on the Berkshires and include segments on art exhibits, architecture, white-water rafting, and cooking.

The program is produced by Clarke Corp., a luxury appliance distributor in Milford. The show, which will repeat on Sundays at 2 p.m., replaces a locally produced show about the New England Patriots on Saturday and paid programming on Sunday.

SUZANNE RYAN

For Leno, gag order is no joke

LOS ANGELES -- Have you heard the one about Jay Leno, the gag order in the Michael Jackson case, and the First Amendment?

It's no joke, according to one legal expert: Leno, concerned he could be barred from making ''Tonight Show" quips about Jackson's molestation trial, can claim constitutional protection.

Leno should prevail with a First Amendment freedom of speech argument, said Jamin Raskin, a law professor at American University in Washington.

''The court, in order to avoid a constitutional showdown, would try to draft a very carefully worded gag order that would allow him to make fair comment on the public aspects of the case," Raskin said Thursday.

Leno was subpoenaed for Jackson's trial in Santa Maria, Calif., and Santa Barbara County Superior Court Judge Rodney S. Melville issued a sweeping order barring anyone involved in the case from discussing it outside court.

''It would be ridiculous to apply the gag order to Leno," said comedian Bill Maher, host of HBO's ''Real Time With Bill Maher."

''They should absolutely let him do his jokes," Maher said Thursday. ''The jokes he's going to make are the same ones he'd make if he wasn't involved in the case."

A publicist for the show declined to say whether the subpoena had led Leno to change the monologue's contents.

In a motion filed on behalf of Leno, attorneys said the court couldn't have intended the order, issued more than a year ago, to limit ''public personalities" such as Leno from commenting on the case.

Applying the order to Leno would be prior restraint in violation of the First Amendment and the California Constitution, the motion argues, and it asks the judge to clarify or lift it.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Radio highlight

10 a.m. WBIX-AM (1060) -- ''Stu Taylor on Business." Guests: Larry Winget, author of ''Shut Up, Stop Whining"; Trave Harmon, Triton Technologies.