C.J.: Paul Magers makes surprise stop at KARE11

Paul Magers still smells good, I'm told.

The former KARE11 anchor and his wife, Kathy, stopped by the station recently while in town to visit friends. Magers, who now works for the CBS station in Los Angeles, is still a prankster.

"You know the door is locked and you can't just walk in. So he's just snatching on the door. He wanted in," Veronica Richmond, KARE11's soon-to-retire receptionist, laughed Monday.

"I'm like 'What the heck. Who could ... it looks like Paul Magers! Well, I'll be damned. It is.' He was in town for a friend, to surprise. I can't remember what time of day it was but the key players weren't here. He only got to see Jane [Helmke, the news director] and Randy [Shaver]. Di [Pierce] and Julie [Nelson] were out.

"Boy, you know it's time for me to retire, my memory is all bad, " said Richmond.

Pierce believes Magers was at the station the day before President Obama's last trip here. "I missed them by about two minutes. I had to go to a doctor's appointment and was probably pulling away from the station as they were walking in the front door. By the time I got back everybody had a lot of energy because they'd been here and everybody was so happy to see them. Paul and I connected later in the day on the phone; was really sorry to have missed them."

Among the essences of Magers that have not changed, according to Richmond is this: "We used to have this standing thing when he worked here that when you couldn't find Paul let your nose do the walking. Well, it's kind of the same way. He smells good and he walked on through here and his scent went on out the door [with him].

"I guess he's doing the salt-and-pepper look now 'cause he wasn't dyed and I didn't see any signs of Botox," said Richmond. "He looked good."

Since the über-anchor now lives in the LAnd of Botox, we must applaud him for keeping it real.

Shaver's suiting up A couple of weeks ago, somebody subbing for Richmond hung up on me twice. I was attempting to ask Helmke if I'd missed an announcement that sports anchor Randy Shaver was replacing news anchor Mike Pomeranz. Later a broadcast insider told me I had not missed it.

"They have not made a decision yet," Richmond said. Shaver "has been doing a lot of filling in because of the vacations and to give the male perspective to the set. Personally, I hope it's him. I like him."

Shaver has been looking mighty comfortable alongside Nelson, who has been sitting in what I call the power anchor chair. People close to Shaver tell me that lately he's seemed unusually convivial and has even been seen wearing SUITS.

"Yeah, isn't that something? That is a more serious look for Randy," Richmond said with more laughter.

Richmond is scheduled to retire Aug. 3 after 16 1/2 years out front at the station.

"I've had enough, I've had enough," she laughed. "I don't care [if you quote that] because I've told them I've had enough of them! I'm going home, sitting down and watching soap operas and calling here and aggravating them the way people do me."

Independent Gretchen "FOX & Friends" anchor Gretchen Carlson made a startling disclosure on ABC's "The View" Monday.

SHE'S AN INDEPENDENT.

The subject of kissing was brought up by "View" co-host Joy Behar.

"You kiss independents?" Carlson said pointing to herself.

"I kiss Elisabeth [Hasselbeck, 'View' co-host, who was off] constantly," said Behar.

I can't wait to see what "The Daily Show" host Jon Stewart does with this shocking independent information.

Carlson also refers to herself as a "wild woman," according to Barbara Walters.

More girl trouble for Kris TMZ reports that Kris Humphries' lawyers contacted the FBI about an alleged extortion attempt by an ex-girlfriend.

A woman named Myla Sinanaj reportedly wanted large sums of money from the NBA player to keep certain "damaging information about their relationship" quiet, according to TMZ.

"Lawyers for Kris and Myla were jawboning Friday. Kris' lawyers were trying to get her to sign a nondisclosure agreement. As for why they want to muzzle her, sources connected with Myla say she has e-mails, texts and other documents chronicling their relationship that could hurt Kris if they became public," wrote TMZ.

Really? I can't imagine what this could be. He's an estranged husband, and therefore technically a single guy, and the bar of behavior is really low for single people. As a matter of personal policy, Humphries should just carry nondisclosure forms with him at all times. And in addition to avoiding women with K's in their names, he might also disqualify any woman whose names begin with "Sin" -- if TMZ is accurate about this.

C.J. is at 612.332.TIPS or cj@startribune.com. More of her attitude can be seen Thursday mornings on FOX 9.