• Ad Age, Wednesday, February 8, 2006 11 AM

Either NBC has weak knees and has again caved to pressure from the religious right--or it's got serious internal problems in its public relations department. Yesterday the company said it never even intended to shoot a scene in an upcoming April episode of "Will & Grace" in which guest star Britney Spears hosts a cooking show called "Cruci-fixins." What's more, such a scene had never even been written, NBC claimed. Odd, since it was NBC that initially boasted of the comedic sendup--a boast that brought down the enmity and boycott power of the ultraconservative American Family Association. "Some erroneous information was mistakenly included in a press release describing an upcoming episode of Will & Grace which, in fact, has yet to be written," an NBC spokesperson said in response to the network's announcement to the AFA and others that there was nothing to worry--and protest--about. An American Family Association executive had earlier said, "I wonder who is at the helm at NBC that they are not getting the message. NBC doesn't seem to be concerned that they are tanking because they are offending their viewers and running them off." It was only recently that NBC cancelled "Book of Daniel," which was targeted by the AFA as offensive to conservative Christians.

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