We'll have to wait 'til next year for this big, fat Greek wedding

Rena Sarigianopoulos' big, fat Greek wedding will have to wait until 2009.

The "KARE11 Sunrise" reporter is wearing a big rock from "an award-winning, wonderful photojournalist," she said of Jonathan Malat, who also works at KARE.

"Both my brothers, Tony and Joe [Ohio residents], are getting married this year in big, giant, big, fat Greek weddings, so it was probably not a good time to plan ours for this year. So we haven't set a date yet," she said. "Much to my family's dismay [Malat is not Greek], but they are quite fond of him," said Sarigianopoulous, who has been with Malat for nearly six years. "We did the long-distance thing for a while; he was part of the reason I moved here. I was already a weekend anchor in Milwaukee and finally we said, 'Somebody's gotta give' and so I gave. He obviously worked in a better market. I have not regretted a moment of it," added Sarigianopoulos, who has been at KARE 2 1/2 years.

Advised to stay on top of that birth control, Sarigianopoulos said: "I appreciate the advice. Does that look bad?" Does it look bad when TV news people have pre-marriage birth control failures that they wish viewers would ignore as though we have neither calendars nor math skills? Yes, it does. Do NOT misread between the lines and conclude that Sarigianapoulos is pregnant.

The view from Chicago "What the hell happened to Paul Douglas?" Steve Cochran said, calling from Chicago, where he works at WGN radio.

The alum of KDWB-FM is a student of the broadcast industry and its trends, so I couldn't wait to hear Cochran's take on WCCO-TV's firing of Douglas, the longtime Twin Cities meteorologist who had an unfortunate detour at a Chicago TV station. I explained that Douglas appeared to be another victim in budget-cutting and the general death of media as we've known it.

"That makes sense because the weather is not really important in Minnesota," Cochran, who is also a comedian, said sarcastically.

Didn't Chicago lose an anchorwoman in Chicago as a result of CBS budget cuts? "Yeah, Diann Burns," Cochran poo-pooed. "Honestly, there's a big difference between an anchorwoman in Chicago and the No. 1 weatherman in the Twin Cities [in Steve's estimation]. One you need, one you can get by without. The guy's my friend, so pardon my bias, but he literally is one of the best TV weather guys in the country by far. Top three. There's Paul, Tom Skilling at WGN and me in 'Grumpy Old Men.'" Not just a comedian, Cochran also has done some movie acting.

Douglas' stature in TV weatherdom didn't help much when his act went kaboom in Chicago. "That was all politics," Cochran said. "You know what a fan of management I am."

Through me, Cochran sent a delightfully naughty e-mail to Douglas, which isn't printable. But it was funny.

Slim and trim Trotters "Collard greens, corn, catfish, sweet potato pie, macaroni and cheese and some lemonade," said Harlem Globetrotters legend Curly Neal, ticking off what he ate for lunch at Chelly's Cafe.

Neal is going to have trouble maintaining that girlish figure eating like that. "We don't eat that much, we just eat often. And we drink a lot of water," Neal told me last month when he and Eugene (Wildkat) Edgerson were in the Twin Cities promoting the team's Friday and Saturday night appearances at Target Center.

An apology to the twins Through their father, Mike Hensel, I apologized to Brittany and Abigail, the conjoined twins who live in rural Minnesota, for the item I wrote last week.

I regret that the item's intent -- the need to accept differences in people and not to follow them around in public, at a place such as the Mall of America -- was misconstrued by their family and friends. It did not occur to me they were uncomfortable with media attention. They have participated in lots of interviews. They've appeared on "TLC" and "Oprah." They've been written about in Newsweek, the UK's Telegraph and Daily Mail. In February, they appeared in the City Pages' blotter blog.