Only a been-there/greenlit-that showbizzer like Leonard Goldberg could bring together the motley crew of Sumner Redstone, Michael Eisner, Leslie Moonves, Jerry Weintraub, Bill Blinn, Harry Sloan, Jonathan Dolgen, Arnold Kopelson, Ed Zwick and Peter Bart on a night when there was a compelling boxing match on TV.

But the Paley Center for Media months ago dated Thursday night for its salute to Goldberg's long career in film and TV, and his friends and longtime colleagues weren't about to let him down, not even for the spectacle of Biden vs. Palin.

It is a testament to Goldberg's legacy as an innovator and successful producer that the conversation was much more a lively discussion about television's present and future than it was a rose-colored nostalgia trip back into the past.

"The problem is, it's nobody's money," Goldberg opined when the conversation turned to the ever-spiraling costs of TV production.

During the years of his very fruitful producing partnership with Aaron Spelling in the 1970s and '80s (count the hits: "The Rookies," "SWAT," "Starsky & Hutch," "Family," "Charlie's Angels," "Fantasy Island," "Hart to Hart"), Goldberg recalled, "if we went over budget, it was our money. We decided when we would (need to) go over budget, because it was our money...If more people were given the opportunity to independently produce (today), I think you'd see people figure out ways to do it for less."

Variety boss Bart moderated spirited debate about the state of the biz, then and now, among Goldberg, Eisner (his former underling at ABC), writer Blinn (who penned "Brian's Song" and "Starsky and Hutch" for Goldberg) and multihyphenate Zwick (who cut his teeth in his 20s on "Family").

(Pictured above, from left, Eisner, Goldberg and Bart.)

Some interesting tidbits in today's SEC filings from CBS Corp. and CNET Networks on the commencement of CBS Corp.'s tender offer to buy CNET Networks for about $1.8 billion.

Most interesting is the detail offered in the backgrounder on the negotiations, which only reinforces how astounding it is that not one whiff of CBS' pursuit of CNET got out in the press prior to the deal announcement on May 15.

CBS Corp. boss Leslie Moonves and CBS chief financial offer Fredric Reynolds made several treks during the past year to CNET's San Francisco HQ to meet with their counterparts, CNET CEO Neil Ashe and CFO Zander Lurie. Ashe and Lurie also spent a lot of quality time at Black Rock meeting with CBS brass. We also now know that May 14 was a marathon workday for Moonves. Not only was it the day of the Eye's upfront presentation at Carnegie Hall, but the final-final the paperwork on the CNET deal was hammered out that day and night and into the wee hours of May 15 prior to the PR execs for both companies pushing the "send" button on the press release that morning.

The big question now, of course, is whether another suitor will come forth with a higher offer for CNET during the next month or so during the tender offer period. Some have suggested that CBS overpaid in agreeing to a deal that gives CNET a 45% premium over where its stock price was before the deal was announced.

But the CBS response is pretty persuasive. CNET is no Internet pipe dream. It's a real company and web pioneer that survived the first dot-bomb meltdown. For 2008, CNET is forecasting nearly $93 million in earnings on revenues of $446 million. Those are numbers that even a $14 billion company like CBS can't sniff at.

As recounted in this SEC filing (the interesting stuff starts on page 15) Reynolds, intrepid CBS Interactive prexy Quincy Smith and two other CBS execs made the first fact-finding mission to CNET's offices in April 2007. Then Moonves and Ashe made a point of having dinner in July during investment banker titan Herbert Allen's annual moguls' retreat in Sun Valley, Idaho. (Allen & Co. wound up becoming an adviser to CNET on the deal.)

(Pictured above: Leslive Moonves on stage at Carnegie Hall during the Eye's May 14 upfront presentation. He headed back Black Rock later in the day to monitor the last lap of the CNET negotiations.)

CBS chief Leslie Moonves made a visit to the CBS News offices today as a show of support for embattled anchor Katie Couric. Associated Press' David Bouder has all the details in this report on Moonves' journey into the newsroom and meeting with Couric and "CBS Evening News" exec producer Rick Kaplan, who insisted that reports of Couric's exit from the anchor chair have been greatly exaggerated. "She's not been at it two years and everybody is writing her obituary," Kaplan told the AP. "That's fine. Success is the sweetest revenge."...

Meanwhile, NBC News has locked up the services of its intrepid Middle Eastern correspondent Richard Engel. Engel has been upped to chief foreign correspondent for the Peacock, which is promising to raise his profile on "NBC  Nightly News," MSNBC and other platforms. Engel, who is conversant in Arabic and fluent in Italian and Spanish, made a name for himself covering the early days of the Iraq war as a freelancer for ABC before joining NBC News in 2003. "There aren't enough superlatives to describe the work that Richard has done in some of the most dangerous places on Earth for NBC News," said NBC News prexy Steve Capus in touting Engel's promotion.

POSTED BY JOSEF ADALIAN

Jeff Zucker didn't feel the need to check out Ben Silverman's TCA debut Monday. But Leslie Moonves managed to lend CBS Entertainment prexy Nina Tassler (pictured left) some moral support today by catching her session with reporters -- most of whom had no idea Moonves was in the house.

Moonves apparently waited until the house lights dimmed before sneaking into the back of the BevHills Hilton ballroom where Tassler met the assembled scribes Wednesday morning. And just as quietly as he arrived, Moonves was gone a few minutes after Tassler wrapped up her controversy- and blunder-free appearance.

Despite his elevated role, the Eye supremo still feels obligated to schmooze the nation's TV press. He's expected to be at the net's all-star party Thursday night. We're hoping wife Julie Chen will be there, too, with some fresh "Big Brother 8" gossip.