COLLARED BY THE LEDGER

With the mid-season break for the holidays, 'White Collar' officially joined the TV Universe in the last episode, "Free Fall". Neal Caffrey was on the run and a very bad mug-shot was plastered on the front page of the New York Ledger.

Most TV fans know that the New York Ledger is probably the ultimate bit of TV trivia from Dick Wolf's corner of the TV Universe. It frequently shows up as the paper of record in episodes of 'Law & Order', 'Law & Order: Special Victims Unit', and 'Law & Order: Criminal Intent'. I think it also appeared in at least one episode of 'Law & Order: Trial By Jury'. And then there was another off-shoot series which had the Ledger as its focal setting, 'Deadline'.

According to Wikipedia, the Ledger has shown up on 'CSI: NY', which would make sense since even though they're different production companies and different networks, it's still one big tele-NYC.

And now we find a copy of the Ledger in 'White Collar', bringing this USA Network show into the Westphallian fold. (Its inclusion in the Toobworld version of the TV Universe was a given. All are "well come".)

Which is no surprise considering USA Network is a subsidiary to the NBC parent company (which was GE, but now looks to be Comcast)..... BCnU!