Cutting-room floor

NBC is removing the sitcom Coupling from its high-powered Thursday night lineup-at least temporarily. The show, controversial because of its sexually explicit dialogue, placed 37th despite being in a time slot bracketed by the network's top-rated "Must See TV" shows. The showing prompted NBC to air instead a rerun of Whoopi last Thursday. The show will again be knocked off the schedule for the start of fall sweeps later this month. However, an NBC spokesman insists that the network has "not given up" on Coupling yet.

Another entertainer may soon attempt to ride Arnold's coattails into elected office in California. Several reports suggest that Republican strategists in the state are floating Dennis Miller's name as a possible challenger to Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer. Mr. Miller has been outspoken in his support of President Bush and the war in Iraq in recent months.

Underage kids are having a harder time getting into R-rated movies, or so a recently released report by the Federal Trade Commission claims. The "undercover survey" recruited children ages 13 to 16 to attempt to buy tickets to R-rated films, and found that the children were only successful 36 percent of the time. This number is down from 48 percent in the 2001 survey. This same group, however, was far more successful in purchasing DVD movies, music, and video games with mature or explicit warnings.