CBS's Patinkin Village

Had Tassler not followed NBC's new co-chairman Ben Silverman, who really wowed the crowd of TV critics by doing his Q&A session in the happy-chatty manner of a slightly high undergraduate, they might have accepted her non-answer answer.

But she did, and they didn't.

"This is the second time Mandy Patinkin has done this to CBS. . . . Is this it for him as far as hiring for a series at CBS?" asked one critic.

"It's probably not the answer you want from me right now, and I do not want to sound like I'm avoiding the question," Tassler said, avoiding the question.

"It's a personal issue, and at some point, I hope in the near future, Mandy will be able to answer some of these questions," she said.

"I thought the [news] releases said 'creative differences,' and you're saying it's personal issues. Which is it?" another critic wondered.

"Well, I think 'creative differences' is a euphemism for 'personal issues,' " Tassler said, winking at the critic, which, again, we didn't think ever happened except in Broadway musicals.

"Can I ask you what the wink means?" wondered the critic -- one of those annoying persistent types.

"I think you get it," Tassler replied.

Reports that Patinkin was out of the series first surfaced earlier this month when he failed to show up to read a script with the rest of the cast. An executive producer was quoted as saying Patinkin had assured the studio and the network he was returning right up to the day before they started to shoot the first episode and he was a no-show.

Last week, Patinkin also was a no-show for a Q&A session on PBS's new project "The Jewish Americans," in which he'd participated. The executive producer told critics Patinkin was ill.

"I'm just wondering, if 'creative differences' is a euphemism for 'personal issues,' can you help us with what 'personal issues' is a euphemism for? . . . Is it workload? Is it health? Is it scripts? Is it Dave Chappelle?" asked still another critic.