{alltv} Katie Couric happy to 'Stand Up to Cancer' with rivals

Monday, August 9, 2010

{alltv} Katie Couric happy to 'Stand Up to Cancer' with rivals

Katie Couric is glad that for one night, at least, she gets to stand in unity with Diane Sawyer and Brian Williams.

The "CBS Evening News" anchor is preparing to team with her weeknight-anchor rivals, since she will partner with NBC's Williams -- to whom she is sending condolences on the death of his father over the weekend -- and ABC's Sawyer on the second "Stand Up to Cancer" information and fundraising special, which their networks and numerous others will televise simultaneously Friday, Sept. 10.

"I think we're bonded by healthy competition," Couric tells Zap2it of her relationship with the other two anchors. "We all want to do the best jobs we possibly can in our respective positions, but the fact is that we all like and respect each other, and we all care deeply about this issue.

"Every one of us, like really almost everyone in the country, has been affected by cancer in one way or another. Each of us has his or her story. I'm sure Brian will tell you about his sister, who died of breast cancer, and Diane has had some very dear friends pass away from cancer. She was extraordinarily compassionate and involved in their care."

A prominent proponent of the "Stand Up to Cancer" initiative from the start, Couric adds, "You don't need me to tell you about Jay (Monahan, Couric's attorney husband, whose death from colon cancer prompted her to promote colonoscopies) and Emily (her Virginia-senator sister, who died of pancreatic cancer).

"One of the things about cancer is that it ties us all together ... not only the three anchors of the evening-news broadcasts, but we as a nation. It knows no socioeconomic boundaries, and it doesn't discriminate."

It's been two years since the inaugural "Stand Up to Cancer" special, and Couric explains it took this long to assemble "all the moving parts" for another one. Among them will be many famous faces, as with the 2008 special, but Couric concludes that such a gathering of celebrities for the cause is "simply a microcosm of the universality of cancer."