Comedian Tracy Morgan turns 41 today. Mackenzie Phillips is turing 50. Actress Brittany Murphy is 32. Grey's Anatomy's Ellen Pompeo is turning 40. Mets general manager Omar Minaya is 51. Nobel Prize-winning economist Robert Engle is turning 67. CUNY chancellor Matthew Goldstein is 68. Socialite Lauren Dupont is 39. Actress Heather Matarazzo turns 27. The rapper Eve is 31. TV anchor Aaron Brown is turning 61. Film producer Roland Emmerich turns 54. Publishing exec Stephen Rubin is 68. And Sinbad turns 53 today.

Aaron Brown was the serious, soft-spoken voice of CNN. Americans all remember his calm, powerful, and moving presence on CNN covering the attacks on the World Trade Center, as they happened, all day long. His first day at CNN! Then a couple years later CNN ditched him and gave his time-slot to Anderson Cooper, who is much prettier. But he's back! On, uh, PBS, where he'll look comparatively "young" and "cool." Anyway, Brown weighed in, for some reason, on the battle between Fox hothead Bill O'Reilly and MSNBC's Keith Olbermann. "Keith Olbermann and Bill O'Reilly 'are both larger-than-life figures,' he says, but Olbermann is 'smarter, funnier, better read and eminently more talented.'" Well. Is someone angling for David Gregory's spot once Gregory takes over for Chris Matthews? He's got all the time in the world, NBC. He'll wait out this rumored move that may never happen. [TVNewser]

• American Press Institute launches $2 million project to figure out the future of newspapers. By all current evidence: Death. [E&P]
• How will Nightline survive post-Koppel? Standards, dammit, says Koppel. [USAT]
• Bob Woodward grew up and turned in his father, metaphorically speaking. [VV]
• Bill Keller has a "serious case of Judy Miller fatigue." Just like everyone else. [Daily Princetonian]
• Media transparency is busting out all over. Yay! [LAT]
• Liberals don't listen to the radio or watch much TV, says NBC chief. And it's for genetic reasons. [B&C]
• Aaron Brown is the king of lunch. Also, he'd take the ABC or CBS jobs, if they were offered. We would, too. [Phil. Inquirer]
• The Judy World Tour continues, last night at George Washington University. [FishbowlDC]
• Peacock to Martha: You're fired! [WP]

• Happy birthday to former CNN anchor Aaron Brown! May your 57th year be full of, um, employment! [Wikipedia]
• Staying in tonight? Be sure to catch Judy Miller seduce Larry King with her bangs. [CNN]
• In a week where the fluff news is dominated by the story of two cheerleaders getting it on in the ladies' room (and then subsequently punching a witness), let's take a moment to remember all the great moments in pop cultural history that have gone down in public restrooms. [Black Table]
• Master the Paris Hilton pose, and you too can downplay your lazy eye! [Just Jared]
• Get Rich or Die Tryin to See the Flick. No, seriously. Stereotypes, people — need we keep perpetuating them? [PC]
• Dozing on the LIRR? You might want to rethink that, considering someone's devoting their blog to pictures of you drooling. [Essays & Effluvia]
• Sarah Silverman: "I don't care if you think I'm racist. I just want you to think I'm thin." At least we're not the only ones who think like that. [Slate]

We were realizing that it's been far too long since we checked out the e.e. cummings dadaism of Rosie O'Donnell's blog, so we reset our expectations to free verse and navigated our way to Rosie.com, where we were shocked to find this:

• Aaron Brown's problem is that he's "erudite and droll and low-key," says Jon Friedman. Would that we all had such problems. [MW
• Jay-Z considers buying The Source, perhaps. [WWD]
• Right-wing stooge put in charge of public-broadcasting corporation forced to step down. In celebration, Bert and Ernie invite Tinky Winky over for a hot three-way. [NYT]
• One good thing is coming from the glut of celeb mags: A price war. Celebrity Living now retails for only 25 cents, at which point it is only barely overpriced. [NYP]
• Joan Lunden and David Hartman return for a GMA 30th-birthday party, which purely coincidentally falls on the first day of November sweeps. [USAT]
• Sexy Jon Fine loves grumpy old adman George Lois. Also, he thinks he's full of shit. [BizWeek]

• CNN's changes had nothing to do with getting rid of Brown; that was just a coincidence. "He's really a doll to work with," says CNN chief. [NYT]
• Of course, ol' Aaron had been a "drag" on CNN's ratings. [NYP]
• Knight Ridder sale could spark industry consolidation. You know, because there are too many independently owned papers left these days. [WSJ]
• S&S EIC Micahel Korda to step down, after 938 years in job. [WP]
• Comedy Central ups Colbert Report order to a full year, ensure 11 more months of a show we sort of feel like we should be watching but also don't enjoy as we'd hoped to when we do. [E! Online]
• Jack McCoy's flannel suits too boring for your TV-crimefighting tastes? Rejoice, then, in Sleuth, NBC Universal's new cable net featuring old crime shows from The A-Team to Miami Vice. [B&C]
• Russ Smith doesn't like Arthur Sulzberger. We're shocked. [NY Press]

One of the 47 press releases that CNN sends us each day just arrived in our inbox, and either we're very confused or they're not just burying but entirely ignoring the lead. Here's the new CNN daily schedule. Do you see a show for Aaron Brown — last we heard, the network's lead anchor — anywhere on it?

• Penthouse raises new cash to take on Playboy. In mud-wrestling, of course, with throngs of fratboys watching. [Folio:]
• Honcho Rick Kaplan might not be much longer for MSNBC, according to rumors. And we're sure his underlings will be sad to see him go. [NYP]
• All of Time Inc.'s business websites — Fortune.com, Business2.com, FSB.com — will be merged into Time Warner's CNNMoney.com. [Folio:]
• Reporting on VF's reporting of WP's reporting. [E&P]
• CNN's Aaron Brown thinks about ABC's Peter Jennings. Then he thinks about that damnded Anderson Cooper, who's hogging all the attention. [Philadelphia Inquirer]
• The Post's scratch-off poker game — play to win! Except when winning is impossible. [Media Mob/NYO]

Just wanted to let you know that, no, we haven't forgotten about Aaron Brown's iPod and its secret John Denver song. Thing is, we're actually trying to find out the answer. We've emailed Brown himself a few times, we've spoken with CNN's top New York publicist, who promised she'd look into it, and we're waiting to hear back.

CNN anchor Aaron Brown submits to a Q&A in the current issue of Golf Connoisseur, a quarterly lifestyle mag for the country-club set. He talks about what's in his hair, his bookcase, his basement, his nightmares, and, most interestingly, his iPod.