PROGRAM FREE COMMERCIALS: "Ad people will often talk about how the 30-second ad is becoming obsolete," writes Mark Gimein in Fortune's April 1 number.

"But when you probe further, it turns out that what they mean is not really that commercials will disappear but that those pesky TV `programs' that surround them will," writes Gimein, who quotes DDB Needham chairman Keith Reinhardt as saying: "Eventually there will be entire channels devoted to commercials. It's all just content!"

DEFINING A CRISIS: Leonard Biegel, who heads Weber Shandwick's global crisis practice, told American Journalism Review he once asked a client, "What's your definition of a crisis?" The client answered, "When the phone rings and there's a reporter on the other end."

NO DEAL: Attorneys said no plea deals have been made in the New York publicist's assault-by-SUV case.

Lizzie Grubman appeared in Suffolk County court in Riverhead, N.Y., on April 1, but she got no deal, according to her lawyer, Stephen Scaring, who denied earlier published reports in The New York Post and The New York Daily News that the prosecution offered Grubman a no-jail plea with $700,000 in fines and 500 hours of community service for mowing down 16 people last summer at a Hampton's nightclub.

Judge John Mullin, who has yet to rule on a series of pretrial motions in the case, set April 29 as Grubman's next court date.

TAP TAP: Anne Wexler, 72, chairman of Wexler & Walker Public Policy Assocs., was featured in a March 28 "Techies" column in The Washington Post.

Her husband, former U.S. Information Agency director Joseph Duffy, told the Post he is concerned about his wife's constant tapping on her BlackBerry, a small mobile e-mail device, which allows her to repond to the dozens of messages she gets every day.

Wexler told the paper she keeps up with clients and office colleagues with a laptop computer connected to the Internet via a local wireless network.

The column also said Wexler recently bought a 42-inch Fujitsu high definition TV set, "making her one of a handful of people in the Washington area who have a window on one of the biggest developments in TV technology since the introduction of color."

Wexler handles Comcast, which announced recently that it would be the first cable company in the Washington area to carry high-definition TV signals.

Wexler, who sits on Comcast's board, is leading Comcast's effort to win regulatory approval for its $72 billion merger with AT&T Corp.'s cable division.

PR GETS CREDIT: The Associated Press covered the induction of Raggedy Ann into the National Toy Hall of Fame, Salem, Ore., on March 27.

It was a great ending for Mine Hill, N.J.-based publicist Wayne Catan, who was hired by United Media -- which handles licensing for the doll on behalf of Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing -- to run a PR campaign aimed at persuading judges to let Raggedy in. The 86 year-old doll had been rejected four times.

Catan's campaign generated more than 15,000 petitions as well as news coverage, including a segment on NBC's "Today Show" urging the doll be inducted.

"The grassroots campaign helped a great deal," said Joni Gruelle, granddaughter of Johnny Gruelle, creator of Raggedy Ann.