Issue Date: July 2, 2006
Elizabeth Vargas wants her anchor job back. The sole host of ABC's "World News Tonight" after co-anchor Bob Woodruff was wounded in Iraq, she ceded the job to Charlie Gibson recently, to the outrage of feminist leaders and USA WEEKEND readers such as M.A. Lind of Oceanside, N.Y., who asks, "Why was she demoted?" Here, Vargas, 43, who unexpectedly became pregnant around the time she and Woodruff were promoted, tells us she "will do everything in my power" to anchor a nightly news program again, at ABC or elsewhere, but her "excruciatingly difficult decision" was quite complicated.
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People wonder if it truly was your choice.
"It is incumbent upon us when we reach a certain level to not be selfish. We're a team. Bob and I are both reporters and wanted to be reporters first. We wanted to take the show on the road ... traveling to war zones. Now I can't even fly."
Much has been made of Katie Couric going to CBS as a solo female anchor. Yet you were solo female anchor for months.
"A de facto solo anchor, yes. I don't need the hoopla. I think a lot of my colleagues were frustrated about that hoopla because I'd been doing it single-handedly off and on since Peter [Jennings] got sick."
You've gone through some tough stuff. Your husband was shot in a carjacking, Jennings' death, the wounding of friends in Iraq. How has it changed you?
"It puts everything in perspective. This is one year and one decision."
If Jennifer Aniston's films are not moneymakers, how long can her career last?
J. Black, St. Augustine, Fla.
Critic Glenn Whipp of the "L.A. Daily News" says Aniston, 37, can work a long time in movies like "The Break-Up" (which opened at No. 1). However, she isn't complex. "Compare her to Angelina Jolie, who is crazier than a bag of squirrels. But she can play everything except [what] Aniston does."
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She TiVos "Desperate Housewives" and "24," loves thrillers like "M:i:III" and comedies like the new "Click." No wonder: Anne Archer has done every genre, from "Fatal Attraction" to "Man of the House." Now she is on FX's "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia," playing Danny DeVito's estranged wife, "a person who goes around with a dog in her purse." Archer, 58, is out of what she calls an actress's "dead period, when she's too old for femme fatale but not really older. It's hard in your 40s and early 50s."
How are "American Idol" finalists paid when they leave behind jobs to compete? Also, who pays for their families to visit?
Ann Morgan, Gardena, Calif.
Fox's "official" line is, finalists get housing, meals and transport; families get nothing, unless the contestant is a minor (a parent stays with him or her). But families add to the show, so we suspect there are a few perks.
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Four things to know about Henry Winkler, now appearing in "Click"
1. He clicks with Adam Sandler. Their new movie is their third. Says Winkler, 60, "I called him to say I was so happy to be in his 'Hanukkah Song ...' A year or two later, I was asked to be in 'The Waterboy.'"
2. He's dyslexic. Still, he earned a master's degree from Yale. "Whether we learn differently or not, that does not mean you don't have greatness inside of you."
3. He writes children's books. His 10th is due in August. His formula: "Tell the truth, don't write down [to kids], and write with humor."
4. His iPod has changed his life. He loves to shuffle his 800-plus songs by artists such as Emmylou Harris, the Three Tenors, the Moody Blues and Damien Rice.
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BIRTHDAYS
July 2: Lindsay Lohan 20; Michelle Branch 23
July 3: Tom Cruise, 44
July 4: Geraldo Rivera, 63
July 5: Edie Falco, 43
July 6: Sylvester Stallone, 60; George W. Bush, 60
July 7: Michelle Kwan, 26; Robin Weigert, 37; Jorja Fox, 38; Ringo Starr, 66
July 8: Beck, 36; Kevin Bacon, 48
Contributing: Gayle Jo Carter
 Ask Lorrie Lynch a question about a celeb!
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