‘Someone left the cake out in the rain” …
The long, varied history of Jimmy Webb’s tune “MacArthur Park” will take yet another turn on this Monday’s “Late Show with David Letterman.”
The song, famously recorded in 1968 by actor Richard Harris, has been covered by everyone from Carrie Underwood to Weird Al Yankovic to Donna Summer, who did a chart-topping disco version in 1978. On Monday’s “Late Show” (11:35 p.m./Ch. 2), “MacArthur Park” will be performed — in its six-minute entirety — by the CBS Orchestra, led by “Late Show” band leader Paul Schaffer, with Webb playing the harpsichord. Shaffer, Will Lee (on vocals), Webb et al. will be assisted by an additional 23 musicians, including a bevy of string players. Webb is also known for penning “Worst That Could Happen” as well as “Wichita Lineman” and “By the Time I Get to Phoenix” — both recorded by Glen Campbell.
Trivia fact: Harris talked about his recording of “MacArthur Park” as one of the last guests on Johnny Carson’s “Tonight Show” in 1992.
Shirah impact
Cote de Pablo, who famously left “NCIS” last season, didn’t wander far from her former CBS series home.
De Pablo has been cast as Shirah, a “sensual, mysterious and fiercely independent single mother” in the four-hour miniseries “The Dovekeepers,” which will air on CBS in 2015 and is based on Alice Hoffman’s best-seller about the siege of Masada in 70 C.E., when 900 Jews were surrounded by the Roman army in the Judean desert. It’s being produced by Mark Burnett and his wife Roma Downey, who produced “The Bible,” which opened to a huge 13.1 million viewers on History in March 2013 and kept on rolling.
De Pablo played Special Agent Ziva David for eight seasons on “NCIS” but left at the start of Season 11 despite CBS chief Les Moonves offering her a hefty raise. She’s in “The 33,” the upcoming movie about 33 Chilean miners who were rescued after spending over two months trapped underground in 2010. (De Pablo is Chilean by birth.)
Last, but not least …
Congrats to NBC’s Lauren Skowronski, who’s been promoted to vice president, corporate communications. And to think I knew her when … FBN’s Maria Bartiromo (“Opening Bell”) will be live from Federal Hall outside the New York Stock Exchange every Friday this summer starting July 18 (9-11 a.m.) … Favorite Publicist Names, #43: Tracy Severe (Rubenstein Communications).