OPINION: Stuart Elliott in America.(editorial about Tina Brown)(Editorial)

Americans with long memories, or a penchant for science fiction on television, still speak fondly of Living Doll, one of the spookiest episodes of the CBS series The Twilight Zone. It was the dark tale of a toy with a mind of its own, a doll named Talky Tina.

Fast-forward 40 years later to 2003, when Tina's talky.

Tina is, of course, Tina Brown, just hired by CNBC, the financial news cable network, to host a series of quarterly primetime talk-show specials - titled Topic A with Tina Brown - on subjects from business to politics to popular culture. The first chat-fest, about Hollywood, is slated for 20 March, three days before the Academy Awards ceremony at which Brown's former business partner, Harvey Weinstein, will likely be perched at the proverbial edge of his seat, wondering how many Oscars his hit musical Chicago will win.

Barely a year after the Brown-Weinstein collaboration with Hearst Magazines was dissolved with the collapse of Talk magazine, Brown is back where media junkies and Madison Avenue have grown accustomed to seeing her:

at the centre of the spotlight, ready for her close-up.

It's quite a comeback - or return, if Brown, like Norma Desmond, hates the c-word - considering all the professional obituaries written in January 2002 of the woman The New York Post calls 'New York's favourite expatriate' when the plug was pulled on Talk after 18 under-performing months.

'Manhattan's glittering magazine queen has finally been deposed,' a headline blared in The Observer, typifying the overheated coverage garnered by the demise of Talk. The ink spilled over the shutdown was disproportionate ...