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Even though she’s still six weeks away from debuting her syndicated talk show, Roseanne’s competitors are already bad-mouthing her.

“One rumor is that she is demanding to do her show from her home (in Brentwood),” huffed Jeff Wald, Roseanne’s manager and the executive producer of her new show. “It’s ridiculous. Do you think she wants 200 people from her audience, five days a week, in the neighborhood, plus a staff? We have a state-of-the-art studio (at CBS).”

Another rumor, he said, had Roseanne storming off the set eight weeks ago. “This (week) is the first time she has been on the set!” Wald said.

So why the bad-mouthing? “It’s coming from the competition,” said Andy Friendly, president of first-run programming and production at King World Inc., which is syndicating the show. “They are afraid she will be an early success.”

While Friendly declined to name names, such sniping is to be expected in the increasingly competitive talk show world. The fall schedule is jammed with new entries, like Howie Mandel, whose Paramount show is already on the air.

Plus, Roseanne “is an easy target because she’s been the queen of the National Enquirer,” said Bill Carroll, vice president for New York-based Katz Television Group.

Carroll, who advises TV stations about what shows to buy, said Roseanne recently met with TV critics in Pasadena and won them over. He said she also drew raves at Promax, a national promotional meeting for stations.

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Want a job as an anchorman? Call Paramount Pictures Inc. As part of its plans to rename “Hard Copy” and soften it into a consumer-oriented show, Paramount is looking for a new male anchor. Salary, according to a well-placed news doctor, is between $750,000 and $900,000.

Paramount gave the ax last week to Hard Copy anchor Barry Nolan, after previously dropping co-anchor Terry Murphy. Colleagues say Nolan learned about the career change when he read the news in a Hollywood trade paper.

Carroll of Katz Television said the new show, which may be called “First Person,” will have a tough time getting launched amid the network’s fall season premieres and debuts of rival syndicated shows that have had strong promotional campaigns throughout the summer.

“They have a short time to get it up and running,” he said, adding he was reluctant to recommend the show until he had a much clearer picture of what it might be.

King World’s Friendly, who cancelled “American Journal,” said there are just too many magazine shows. “That is why Bryant Gumble, who had a good show, has had trouble and why we lost ‘American Journal.’ ”

And it may just be that the era of Tabloid TV has run its course.

Movers & Shakers: How does News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch, known for his free-spending ways in business, save a few dollars when it come to his personal tailoring? He takes his British-made Turnbull & Asser shirts, which sell for about $200 in the United States, and copies them in Hong Kong at a fraction of the price, according to the New Yorker magazine

Designer Pam McMahon, Ed’s wife, debuts her resort wear collection Aug. 22 at Neiman Marcus in Beverly Hills.

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