SueTube – Let’s talk TV with critic Susan Young

When word got out that “Deadwood” wouldn’t be coming back for a full season, HBO head Chris Albrecht says he got his share of hate mail.

His favorite?

“Well, one e-mail said ‘May you never take an easy dump again’ ” Chris says.

Everyone eager to see the final episodes of “The Sopranos” are going to have to wait a while longer.

HBO Chairman Chris Albrecht told critics today that “Rome” will go into that spot in January, with “The Sopranos” coming back “later.”

How later?

Well, maybe March. And the reason? Chris mumbled something about James Gandolfini’s leg surgery. But also made the point that creator/writer David Chase follows his own time table.

When a reporter in the back of the room wanted Chris to tell the critics if Tony lives or dies, the stunned executive replied, “Are you high?”

Chris did say that he knew what David Chase had told him, but he wasn’t going to believe anything until after he’d seen the final scripts.

He did promise the viewers would not be disappointed. We’re hoping that if it’s still Christmas when “The Sopranos” returns, someone will get a big whack for the holidays.

Sadly, I missed the Style party. Darn those feature story demands. But, hey, Keyshia Cole of Oakland was worth it.

But “America’s Next Top Model” judge Jay Manuel decided to come on over to the GSN rooftop post-party-party. He was willing to chat, but the trio of critics I was with were about talked-out.

Into the breach I go.

He’s a swell guy, but when he can’t tell you where the next cycle is taking place (“I’m under contract not to say. But you can find it on any Web site.”), it can make you want to grab his spiky blond hair and yank it.

C’mon J-boy, don’t make me have to google you.

“Look at my tan,” he says with the big hint-hint. “I got it where we were taping.”

Oh, that narrows it down to NOT ANTARCTICA.

He did say that the new models are taller than the last cycles’ shorties. But then defended the height impaired former “ANTM” hopefuls.
“You know, Kate Moss is short,” says the sweet Jay, who was actually trying to talk about his new E! show “Style Her Famous” instead of “ANTM.”

Nice try Jay.

Former “The Cosby Show” kid Raven-Symone hit the stage at the TV critics press tour to promote “The Cheetah Girls 2.”

And not the Cosby Show.

When someone asked if she still kept in touch with Bill Cosby, Raven-Symone, billed as “recording artist, executive producer and star, dodged the question.

“We are talking about Disney,” the all-business R-S says. “That’s NBC. No, I’m just playing. No, no,no. I hear through the grapevine that he watches some of my work, but I don’t talk to him as much as I should. We’re all very busy in this industry.”

Short answer: No, she doesn’t.

Nick Nolte, whose famous mug shot after getting busted has turned up on practically every Web site in the world, says he doesn’t mind.

“I even put it on my Web site,” says the off-center Nolte, who says he’s building up his www.nicknolte.com site. “I’m also doing my biography on there, a living, breathing one that changes.”

Nolte’s wild picture from his 2002 arrest for driving under the influence is on the home page, along with his 1962 mug shot for selling fake draft cards.

The wacky actor — is that an oxymoron? — was in Pasadena Monday afternoon for the summer Television Critics Association press tour. He’s the narrator of the documentary “Buy the Ticket, Take the Ride: Hunter S. Thompson on Film” set to air in November on Starz.

Nolte told a small group of critics after his session that he’s basically retired, living in Malibu. He says he’s in his “Marlon Brando” stage where he usually wears wrap-around sarongs.

“I don’t wear any underwear,” he says in response to a tabloid reporter’s nosy question. “Sarongs are like Scottish kilts. Nothing underneath.”

He was wearing a more conservative shirt, loose jacket and very baggy slacks that covered his feet. On his feet were slippers.

“Yeah, I forgot to bring shoes when I came here,” Nolte says, looking a bit shaggy in a full white beard. “I had to borrow these.”

So, I was talking to a friend the other day and she said that she doesn’t watch a lot of TV, but she knows almost all the actors on almost every show.

“Like “Lost,” ‘ she says. “I just can’t keep up with everything that’s going on with that show, but I know that Matthew Fox is on it and some other hot guys.”

So how does she know if she doesn’t watch?

“I read everything about the stars in the magazines,” she says.

So, if you write about celebrities, will they read?

We’ll find out next week when we trek down to Los Angeles for the annual TV critics press tour _ and write almost exclusively about celebs.