• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, July 13, 2006

This summer, for TV executives and talent, it's all about being hot and whining, and all business--nothing but business.

Thus we have "The Simple Life" renewed for yet a fourth season, now on E! Entertainment--even though the two principals still refuse to talk with each other. Each star appears separately in the show except for one scene.

In the first episode, Paris Hilton enters with her dog, orders a cup of coffee, buys a cookie and sends it to Nicole Richie's table, where a close-up of the cookie reveals the message, written in frosting: "Good luck, bitch." The two then glare at each other.

"The Simple Life" has proven a big success for E!, drawing more than triple the network's prime-time average.  And that is where the rub is.  Emotions may run high--but everyone understands how to make money.

There's more whining this summer. One small San Pedro, Calif-based media company, Positive Ions, is suing the much biggermedia giant Paxson Communications Corp. because of copyright infringement over Paxson's rebranding into Ion Media Networks.

This might seem petty--but the little company has brands such as ionCities and ionMusic for a number of its media channels. Can the little Positive Ions take on the much bigger Paxson? It is just opportunistic? Nope. Just business.

Comedy Central abruptly pulled the controversial Scientology "South Park" episode in March, the one that skewers Tom Cruise. Was that a business decision?

Apparently. But that particular episode is coming back July 19. According to a Comedy Central spokesman, the episode is just rotating back in the group of 150 shows already produced.

Trey Parker and Matt Stone were told in May that the episode was pulled from the schedule to appease Cruise and his partners in "Mission: Impossible III," according to reports.

 Said Stone to Variety: "If they hadn't put this episode back on the air, we'd have had serious issues, and we wouldn't be doing anything else with them."

Sure, with Cruise, business is business. But sometimes there's other business.