Is Silverman in a cave?

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — The new co-chairman of NBC Entertainment doesn't really live in a cave; he sometimes just pretends he does.

Ben Silverman has hired Isaiah Washington to appear in at least five episodes of the upcoming remake of "Bionic Woman," and he acted oblivious about why Washington is no longer one of the stars of "Grey's Anatomy."

"When he told me he was available, I was like, 'You are? Wait. I don't understand. What do you mean? You're a huge star on a star television show,"' Silverman said. "I didn't quite understand what had gone on there."

Of course, even if you don't work in the entertainment industry, it would be hard not to know about the anti-gay slur Washington tossed at a co-star.

Jokes aside, the fact is that Silverman and NBC did hire Washington.

"The bottom line is, he's a wonderful actor, and we think inside 'Bionic Woman,' the character that's been created for him is really strong and one that he'll do a great job at," Silverman said.

No word on how his attempts to hire Michael Richards are going.

THE FIRST THING out of the mouth of new NBC Entertainment co-chairman Marc Graboff was, if not a total lie, then, at least a creative spin on the truth — he insisted that former NBC Entertainment President Kevin Reilly "wasn't fired."

"What happened was when Ben became available, about three months after we made Kevin's new deal, we jumped at the opportunity to bring Ben on board to the company," Graboff said. "We thought he would be able to be the person that was going to take us to the next level. Kevin, when that happened, realized or determined, frankly, that there was just no role for him at the company and decided to move on."

So ... he decided to move on after NBC hired somebody else to fill his position.

Critics laughed. Graboff looked nonplussed. And this is how he wanted to address people who were going to go back and write about him?

SPEAKING OF WAYS to annoy the critics, there was that announcement that NBC picked up another season of "The Apprentice" — a CELEBRITY edition of the show at that.

A few critics hissed. I just groaned.

But wait. The news gets worse.

"We're thrilled to have Donald (Trump) back, and we really believe in the 'The Apprentice' as a perennial NBC reality franchise," Silverman said.