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Comic D.L. Hughley gets topical on CNN talk show

BY ROBERT KAHN | robert.kahn@newsday.com

December 18, 2008

CNN has had a new weekend talk show host since October, and he's ... a stand-up comedian? "D.L. Hughley Breaks the News" offers a take on the week's events in politics, entertainment, sports and pop culture. Hughley acknowledges the union may be "an unholy alliance," but sees it this way: "If CNN can have Nancy Grace, they can have me, too." The onetime sitcom star ("The Hughleys") and BET regular will be at Governor's for four shows this weekend.

You and CNN - as if the line separating news and entertainment wasn't already murky enough?

The news has always informed what I talk about. My gig hasn't changed. News has been inundated with entertainment elements since O.J. So to even now pretend that news and entertainment haven't meshed is disingenuous.

You were taken by surprise when former White House rep Scott McClellan came on and endorsed Barack Obama. What else has caught you off guard?

Al Sharpton and I haven't seen eye to eye on a lot of things, and I was shocked at how different he was than I always imagined he would be. I've misjudged his motives. I always thought he was just doing what he does because he wanted attention. The more I talk to him, the more I realize that - however sometimes misguided he can be - he does what he does because he wants to make things better.

The "Original Kings of Comedy" tour and subsequent film were career milestones. How were you influenced by Bernie Mac?

Bernie taught me that the hardest thing for a black man to do was to be an individual. I have to tell myself that often, and whenever I think it, I have to think about him. Comedically, he was uncompromising. Right before he passed, he was at a charity event for Obama and said something that involved color, and people got irritated. That's how he was - an individual.

There's been this exhalation since the elections, at least in New York. Is there a particular pressure not to pounce on Barack Obama?

He'll do things that people find ironic and funny, and when he does, they should attack. For me, those things happen organically. Sooner or later, he'll be a politician - he'll do something that I think is ironic, or very human - and when he does, I'll be there.

Have you met Anderson Cooper yet? He's spread kind of thin, no?

Anderson Cooper is CNN's Ryan Seacrest.

WHO D.L. Hughley

WHERE|WHEN

Governor's Comedy Club,

90 Division Ave., Levittown,

tomorrow, 8 and 10:30 p.m.;

Saturday, 7:30 and 10 p.m.

TICKETS $28, plus two beverage minimum

PHONE 516-731-3358