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Parker: Katie Couric quips, picks minds, raises money for foundation

By Penny Parker, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published July 14, 2006 at midnight

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Six years ago, after then Today show anchor Katie Couric bared her insides on network television by having a colonoscopy on the air, the number of people seeking that procedure increased dramatically.

Her next Today show medical message came with a mammogram to promote breast cancer screening.

"I told the executive producer of the Evening News on the first night on the job, is it OK if I get a pap smear?"

The jokes kept on coming, but she had us at hello. Couric, who will soon make television broadcasting history as the sole female anchor on the CBS Evening News, came to Denver Thursday to pick midcountry minds during a Town Hall Meeting about network newscasts and to raise money for the Rocky Mountain Cancer Centers Foundation.

Couric fans shelled out $250 apiece to listen to their favorite TV personality over lunch at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House. Couric, whose own life has been tragically touched by cancer - her husband, Jay Monahan, died of colon cancer, and her older sister, Emily, was taken by pancreatic cancer - urged the audience to become "surrogate naggers" when it comes to cancer screening.

"The next time you tell a friend to stick it where the sun don't shine, you may get a big thank you," she said.

Other Couric quips:

• "To all the people who say I used to drink my coffee with you, now I say you'll just have to have a drink with me."

• "My love life's just fine, thanks. Next question?"

• It took me two or three days to adjust (to not having to get up in the middle of the night). I'm a champion sleeper. Now, I have no problem sleeping until the very late hour of 7 o'clock."

NEXT STOP: Before jetting to San Diego on the second-to-last stop of her cross-country Town Hall Meeting tour, Couric was headed to the CBS 4 studios to meet the staff, then trot across Lincoln to Aviano Coffee in the Beauvallon for two hours of promo shots with CBS 4 News anchors Jim Benemann and Molly Hughes.

"We closed down the coffee shop," said Tim Wieland, CBS 4 News director. "We wanted a more casual setting with the three of them sitting around talking about their approach to reporting the news." The promos will start running at the end of August before Couric's September Evening News debut.

COURIC CUTS UP: Before meeting the masses gathered inside the Jones Theatre at the Denver Center Performing Arts Complex, Couric and her entourage waited inside the theater's wig room.

"She was so funny," my spy told me. "Before they fixed her hair, she tried on a bunch of wigs, including a mohawk. She had everybody laughing."

GIRL POWER: Between the Town Hall Meeting with Coloradans and the luncheon to raise funds for Rocky Mountain Cancer Centers Foundation, there was an exclu VIP meet- and-greet with Couric.

Dr. Robin Kovachy, my oncologist and a doc with the Rocky Mountain Cancer Centers, introduced herself to the media star.

"She told me, 'Oh, I'm so happy to see so many chick doctors,' " Kovachy said, laughing. "Then she gave me a high five. I told her, 'Yeah, there's a lot of us now.' "

EAVESDROPPING on a woman watching Couric at the RMCCF luncheon: "It's good to see that she eats."

Penny Parker's column appears Tuesday through Saturday. Listen to her on the Caplis and Silverman radio show between 4 and 5 p.m. Fridays on KHOW-AM (630). Call her at 303-892-5224 or e-mail .