By Lisa de Moraes

Thursday, April 1, 2004; Page C01

Did the White House find weapons of mass destruction at the Ed Sullivan Theatre, or did CNN mess up its report on a "Late Show With David Letterman" segment poking fun at President Bush?

Monday night Letterman debuted a new bit on his show, called "George W. Bush Invigorates America's Youth." What followed was a series of very brief clips from a recent speech in Florida in which the president said things like "it will not happen on my watch" and "we stand for the fair treatment of faith-based groups who will receive federal support for their work" to a Norman Rockwellian group of average citizens. Among them was one apple-cheeked boy of about 12 in a red baseball cap, rugby shirt and chino shorts, who is caught on camera yawning uncontrollably, twisting his head from side to side, checking his watch and otherwise looking pretty thoroughly bored, while the other people serving as background ignored him.

The folks at CNN got a kick out of it and the next morning, during "CNN Live Today," ran the clip, crediting Letterman. CNN host Daryn Kagan quipped, "What is funnier, the kid or that everybody around him -- not a single person even reacts to those high jinks?"

Then CNN cut to commercial break. Right after the break, Kagan told viewers: "All right -- had a good giggle before the break, that video was from David Letterman. We're being told by the White House that the kid, as funny as he was, was edited into that video, which would explain why the people around him weren't really reacting. So, that from the White House."

That night, Letterman struck back. He showed Kagan telling viewers that the White House said the footage had been doctored.

"Now that, ladies and gentlemen, as sure as I'm sitting here, is an out-and-out, 100 percent absolute lie. The kid absolutely was there and he absolutely was doing everything we pictured via the videotape."

Two comedy bits later, Letterman read one of his trademark cards that he's always fiddling with, and started to laugh: "God almighty, my life just gets more and more complicated. You know, just a minute ago . . . I was ranting and raving about the White House. According to this, CNN has just phoned and, according to this information, the anchorwoman misspoke, they never got a comment from the White House. It was a CNN mistake.

"What good does that do me? . . . I've already now called them liars. I think from now on we're going to have to start looking into things," Letterman said.

"Why start now?" his bandleader Paul Shaffer said.

"Because everything was fine, except now I've called the White House liars, and you know what that means -- they're going to start looking into my taxes!"

A CNN spokeswoman told The TV Column yesterday that the network notified Letterman's show at 5 p.m. that CNN had been incorrect in attributing the suggestion of video-doctoring to the White House. Letterman's show is taped at 5:30 p.m.

"It was their choice to continue to air it," the spokeswoman said, adding that the problem had arisen due to "a misunderstanding among staff," but would not elaborate.

Rob Burnett, president and CEO of Letterman's Worldwide Pants production company, told The TV Column that he first received word of CNN's call during the show.

"We did not doctor the footage in any way," Burnett said. "We don't need [special effects] to make our politicians look silly." He also noted that CNN did not contact Worldwide Pants on Tuesday to ask whether the footage had been digitally altered.

"We're not a news show, and if we had doctored the footage for comedic effect, we would say so," Burnett said.

Last night on his show, Letterman recapped the story and joked that he's hearing that maybe the White House did speak to CNN about "George W. Bush Invigorates America's Youth."

Janet Jackson totally gamed ABC News's "Good Morning America" yesterday when the mob who'd shown up to see her perform on the infotainment show -- and maybe even a couple of folks who'd been planted by Jackson's camp in the crowd -- began to jeer Diane Sawyer as she tried to interview the pop star.

"She's over it! She's over it!" the crowd began screaming as Sawyer asked her very first question.

It was by far the best day yet for Jackson on her TV tour to simultaneously promote her new album and dodge all questions about the Super Bowl Incident.

"Good Morning America" had been touting the fact that this would be Jackson's first performance since the halftime show in which Justin Timberlake ripped off part of her costume and revealed one of her breasts, discussion of which instantly became the new national pastime.

An interview with Sawyer was part of the package. The crowd, however, did its best to prevent Di from doing her job. And, really, the heckling did seemed totally ginned, especially when Sawyer tried to ask a question and the crowd began to shout "Album! Album! Album! Ask her about the album!" Jackson then batted her enormous brown eyes at Sawyer and said demurely, "I think they're basically saying they want to talk about the album."

I mean, let's face it, who but a publicist would incite a mob to scream "Ask her about the album"?

With enormous effort, Sawyer finally elicited the only genuinely interesting answer that Jackson has given so far on her Clean Breast Tour, when Sawyer asked how soon after the Super Bowl fiasco "did you know that this was something seismic?"

Jackson said that it was when she'd gone back to her hotel and walked into a friend's room where CNN was on the television: "I saw . . . that clip, and there was a headline underneath talking about Justin and I being arrested in Houston possibly. I was just taken aback. I didn't know that it had escalated to . . ."

Unfortunately, as if on cue, the audience at that point began to roar, "Down with Justin! Down with Justin!"

Exhausted and seeming just a touch peeved, Sawyer had to concede defeat. Jackson had scored her first big victory of the campaign.

We Watch So You Don't Have To:

Pink-haired beautician Amy Adams got whacked from "American Idol" last night because, among all 10 remaining finalists, she received the fewest votes from viewers the night before.

Which was very sad and normally we'd have a lot to say about that and about how John Stevens should have been booted.

But instead, we'd like to spend just a minute contemplating what a jerk show host Ryan Seacrest has turned out to be.

His only discernible talent appears to be the ability to read a script and to say on cue, "right after the commercial break." And yet, with no hint of irony, Seacrest nastily reminded the contestants last night that most of them will have their dreams of recording careers "vanquished forever," and the show will "send them into obscurity."

Seacrest appeared unaware that he had just described the career trajectory of nearly everyone who has ever starred in a hit TV series -- possibly even his own future when the fickle reality-series audience has moved on to the Next Big Thing and his agent is desperately trying to get him booked with those other has-beens on "I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here."

Later, after announcing which three contestants were the week's lowest vote-getters, Seacrest gleefully speculated that "one of you could be singing backup soon for William Hung."

Hung, you'll recall, is the "American Idol" wannabe whose extremely awful rendition of "She Bangs" has earned him a $25,000 recording contract, and whose singing career is likely to flame out immediately thereafter unless the people who are managing him can turn him into the next Tiny Tim.

Throughout last night's show, Seacrest lost no opportunity to insult the contestants, many of whom come from working-class backgrounds. The crowning insult came right before a commercial break, when Seahorse looked into the camera and said with a grin that "one of these people up here could soon be parking cars" -- which, to someone who makes a living saying on cue "right after the commercial break," is apparently the worst form of loser.

This comment must have been such a comfort to anyone watching the show last night who makes a living parking cars, or anyone watching the show who knows someone who makes a living that way, or who is related to some such person.

So, we thought we'd take this opportunity to say to Seafood, on behalf of all of those people, "Shut up, you dreary little man."