Eisner's newest media ride

Say this for the former Mouse House CEO: He's not afraid to try new things, even at the risk of falling flat on his face. He's had a shaky run with that periodic interview show on CNBC that nobody has ever seen, and now he's teaming up with book publisher G.P. Putnam's Sons on a series of 50 two-minute Webisodes that will basically serve as a prequel to an upcoming thriller by Robin Cook ("Coma," "Outbreak"). "This is a whole new way to get an audience that's not reading as much as they did in the past to get to know the characters in a novel," Michael Eisner told the NY Post. "Hopefully they'll get attached enough to go out and buy the book." Good for him. The Webisodes will debut on May 27 and air every Monday through Friday for 10 weeks - all leading up to the August publication of Cook's "Foreign Body." Eisner has the audio and visual rights in case "Foreign Body" is turned into a full-length movie.