NEW YORK (AP) – David Letterman, who infrequently appears on anyone’s show but his own, will make a guest appearance next month on “Live With Regis and Kelly.”

Letterman, host of CBS’ “Late Show,” will appear on Nov. 8, the syndicated morning talk show said Tuesday.

“I think it’s nice that he visits our show once every 10 years,” co-host Regis Philbin told The Associated Press by phone. “But I’m very pleased.”

Philbin and Letterman have long traded friendly barbs. He subbed for Letterman in 2000 when the late-night host underwent heart bypass surgery and again in 2003 while Letterman recuperated from an eye infection.

About their friendship, Philbin says, “that’s the problem. We’re great friends when I go on his show and then I leave and I don’t hear from him. But I’m going to settle that on my home ground.”

In anticipation of the event, “Live,” with Kelly Ripa as co-host, has released its own Top Ten list, with reasons why Letterman is appearing on the show. Among them: “Thinks Kelly is hot” and “Wants to return Regis’ copy of “Deuce Bigalow’ in person.”

Malden joins honorees

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) – Karl Malden, the gruff, fatherly character actor who won an Academy Award for “A Streetcar Named Desire,” will receive a special honor from The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center in Connecticut for his lifetime of stage work.

Malden, 92, will join previous honorees including Jason Robards, Brian Dennehy, Zoe Caldwell, Edward Albee and August Wilson when he collects the award at a Beverly Hills luncheon on Nov. 11.

The Monte Cristo Award is named after O’Neill’s boyhood home in Connecticut, the Monte Cristo cottage, which was the setting for the dramas “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” and “Ah, Wilderness!”

“How fortunate can you get?” Malden said Monday. “O’Neill was one of the top writers in the country. You couldn’t get any luckier than to be in one of his plays. I was in one of them – “Desire Under the Elms.’ It’s a memorable part of my career.”

The honoree is chosen by the theater for exemplifying “the excellence and pioneering spirit” of the Nobel Prize-winning playwright.

The award will be presented to Malden by Michael Douglas, who co-starred with him on the 1970s crime TV show “The Streets of San Francisco.”

Malden’s other screen credits include “On the Waterfront,” “Birdman of Alcatraz,” “Patton,” “Gypsy” and “One-Eyed Jacks.”

Connery says it’s unfair

PANAMA CITY, Panama (AP) – Sean Connery says Panama’s decision to revoke his diplomatic passport has unleashed a wave of unfair criticism on the Internet and in newspapers around the world.

In a letter to Foreign Secretary Samuel Lewis Navarro, published in the newspaper La Estrella de Panama on Monday, Connery said reports about his canceled passport appeared worldwide and “have been hurtful and vigorous.”

“There was no one more surprised than me when they honored me with a diplomatic passport,” he said.

On Oct. 1, Panama’s government canceled diplomatic passports issued by then-President Mireya Moscoso to the Scottish actor, who gained fame as agent 007 in James Bond films, and 120 other “artists, businessmen, politicians and other people on account of them being international promoters of culture, health, business, tourism or athletics.”

The cancellations came as part of an effort to clean up and update the Foreign Relation Department’s files ordered by President Martin Torrijos, who took office Sept. 1. The government requested that all the canceled passports be returned to Foreign Secretary offices in Panama City.

Connery, 74, said that although he had never used the special passport, having the document made him feel “a certain loyalty toward Panama.”

In March 2003, Connery traveled to Panama, visited a coffee plantation belonging to Moscoso and received a Manuel Amador Guerrero award from the then-president, who considered the actor a friend.

Shaq modifies his cars

LOS ANGELES (AP) – Shaquille O’Neal loves cars. So much so, that he’ll do anything to fit inside.

O’Neal shipped dozens of his vehicles – he reportedly has 44 – to Florida after leaving the Los Angeles Lakers, including his 2003 Rolls-Royce with 24-inch “Superman” wheels, his 2004 H2 Hummer with matching Man of Steel logos and an armored Ford Crown Victoria.

The stable of cars also includes a Mercedes-Benz CLK Cabriolet that he customized to look like the sportier Mercedes SL55. It was too small to accommodate his huge frame, he told Celebrity Car magazine. It wasn’t as dramatic as when Shaq “chopped the top off a Ferrari coupe” so he’d fit.

“Shaquille O’Neal may have to modify his vehicles to make them fit, but he’s on the cutting edge of a customization trend that’s sweeping the auto industry,” said Tom duPont, publisher of Celebrity Car parent duPont Publishing.

A brooding O’Neal sits on the fender of a custom Mercedes for the Celebrity Car cover picture. The fall issue of the quarterly magazine arrived on newsstands Tuesday.

Inside Celebrity Car, Shaq leans on his blue Rolls-Royce.

“This is not my everyday car,” O’Neal said. “It’s my most expensive car and I’m the only person silly enough to put 24-inch “Superman’ wheels on a $300,000 Phantom.

“I want people to see the detail, the chrome shining, and say, “I understand whose car this is.”‘