Monday night in the main ballroom at the Plaza Hotel: AFTRA, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, gave its lifetime achievement awards to an eclectic bunch. They were: “Good Morning America’s” Robin Roberts, CBS’ Charles Osgood, “Soul Man” Sam Moore, the cast of “Sesame Street” and Latin American artist Juanes.

(Clarification update: Leslie Simmons of AFTRA wants me to point out that only Charles and Sam received Lifetime awards. The others got awards in their respective fields.)

The winners inspired an equally eclectic group of presenters: Don Imus, for Sam Moore; Tony Bennett, for Juanes; Bill Geist for Osgood. And in the audience a sprinkliing of soap stars including Robert S. Woods from “One Life to Live” and Linda Dano. And my personal soap hero, Don Hastings, who’s played Dr. Bob Hughes for 50 years on “As the World Turns.”

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Liz Rosenberg, Madonna’s PR person for 300 years, is leaving Warner Bros. Records.(She actually started there in 1971.)

This was inevitable since Madonna has long ago left Warner Music Group for Live Nation.

For a long time, Rosenberg handled not only Madonna but several Warner related artists who are also now gone including Prince, the Pretenders, Stevie Nicks, Cher, and Rod Stewart. According to a press release, she’ll set up a new company called Liz Rosenberg Media. She says she’ll handle some WMG clients on a consultant basis. And, of course, she’ll still be with Madonna.

In many regards, Liz has been a genius with Madonna. Many times she’s had to turn lemons into lemonade, as they say, particularly as Madonna created new and more interesting scandals over the years. Most of Madonna’s career has been based on inventing scandal to promote something, and Liz has been as much if not more of the brain trust in that regard.

Some of Madonna’s best scandals involved her marriages and divorces (Sean Penn, Guy Ritchie), affairs (Alex Rodriguez, the current boy toy Jesus Luz), her “Sex” book (which should be interesting reading for her newest kids), and her immersion in the pay for play religion Kabbalah Center in Los Angeles that turned into her conquering of the country of Malawi. Through all this, Liz has somehow managed to hold her head high!

So congrats to Liz Rosenberg. It’s the end of yet another era at the hit starved Warner Music Group.

Roman Polanski’s “The Ghost Writer” opened in four theaters this past weekend, sold them all out, and is headed for 10 more this Friday.

Mel Gibson’s “Edge of Darkness” is entering its twilight phase in theaters after making just $40 million domestically. It cost $80 mil (production budget) plus another $20 mil (promotion, etc). “Edge” hasn’t been a huge hit overseas, either, with just $5 million from the U.K., where it started as a miniseries.

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Elton John: In yesterday’s Parade magazine, he says Jesus was gay. That got the world’s attention, didn’t it?

His Parade interview is incredibly candid.

The actual quote is “I think Jesus was a compassionate, super-intelligent gay man who understood human problems. On the cross, he forgave the people who crucified him. Jesus wanted us to be loving and forgiving. I don’t know what makes people so cruel. Try being a gay woman in the Middle East — you’re as good as dead.”

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It’s been a terrific tour Down Under for Matchbox Twenty star Rob Thomas. He’s had sold out dates and lots of press and airplay.

But the other night, in a Melbourne hotel, his band really had a hit. A total stranger popped out of the woodwork and punched guitar player Frankie Romano in the face. For no reason. Is it really the wonderful land of Oz?

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It looks like famed director Martin Scorsese and actor Leonardo DiCaprio are having their biggest weekend opening ever.

“Shutter Island,” with the star power of Leonardo DiCaprio, Ben Kingsley, and Mark Ruffalo, is set for a $37.3 million weekend.

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Roman Polanski’s “The Ghost Writer” opens today in New York and Los Angeles, a little suddenly, it feels, after its debut at the Berlin Film Festival.

Like Martin Scorsese’s “Shutter Island,” which also opens today, Polanski’s film is very much in the style of Alfred Hitchcock. It’s a highly stylized thriller with some great performances and riveting business even when the plot feels a tad predictable.

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Just in case you were wondering: U2’s The Edge (aka Dave Evans) says the Broadway musical  “Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark” is on.

The $45 million musical has been in limbo for a while as new financing was found to replace old.

But Edge says a meeting took place yesterday with all the principals, including director Julie Taymor. New producer Michael Cohl is getting everything in place. The wheels are turning.

Says Edge: “It will open before the end of the year.”

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“Tower Heist,” Brett Ratner’s next film, is going full speed ahead at Universal. I’m told that Noah Baumbach has just been signed to polish up the screenplay originally written by Ted Griffin.

I wrote about this film when it first got off the ground a couple of years ago. Back then it was envisioned as a black “Ocean’s Eleven,” with Eddie Murphy and Chris Rock being talked about as the leads. (Indeed, Griffin wrote “Oceans.”)

But time does a funny thing to movie projects. “Tower Heist” now looks like it will star Ben Stiller overseeing a cast of guys that could be all colors — maybe even blue, considering recent events in film land.

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Leonardo DiCaprio is still to set to play Frank Sinatra for Martin Scorsese. But he’s probably not going to sing.

“With those records?” Scorsese asked me, his voice rising, at the premiere last night for his new DiCaprio collaboration, “Shutter Island.” “Frank will do the singing. But we’re waiting for a finished script.”

So while he’s waiting, Scorsese’s next film will likely take a break from DiCaprio. “The Invention of Huge Cabret” is lighter fare for Scorsese, about a 12-year-old boy who lives in Paris and meets famous French silent film director and magician George Méliès.

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