Kent Firing Grist for Leno on ‘Tonight’ : Television: The NBC News correspondent’s appearance is canceled and the network cans him-- but his name is mentioned repeatedly on the show.

When NBC ordered “The Tonight Show” to cancel Friday’s scheduled appearance of former NBC News correspondent Arthur Kent, it marked the first time the network had overridden a booking decision since Jay Leno took over as host last spring, according to the program’s executive producer, Helen Kushnick.

Both Kushnick and NBC spokeswoman Sue Binford said that they do not expect the veto to become standard operating procedure.

“I’m not going to ask them every time I book someone,” Kushnick said.

Binford said that the situation with Kent was unique because the correspondent had threatened a lawsuit against NBC. She said that she did not recall Johnny Carson--who, unlike Leno, was the owner of “The Tonight Show” when he hosted it--ever being ordered to cancel a guest.

Kent’s appearance was canceled Thursday, after “The Tonight Show” had flown him to Los Angeles. On Friday, he was fired by the network, culminating an unusually public contract dispute.

Kushnick said in an interview that she fought the network’s order, even double-checking to see whether it would be rescinded once Kent’s ties with the network were severed Friday morning.

“I said to (NBC) that unless they put it in writing, I wouldn’t do it,” said Kushnick. They did. She complied but didn’t like it and vowed that she “wasn’t going to do it quietly.”

Indeed, “quietly” is hardly the word for the way “The Tonight Show” handled Kent’s non-appearance Friday night.

Kent’s situation was mentioned repeatedly on the air. At the outset, when announcer Edd Hall read the names of the guests, he added, “and thanks to the NBC legal department, no Arthur Kent.” The letters on the screen that usually spell out the name of an upcoming guest flashed “No Arthur Kent.”

For his part, Leno read a spoof of the letter that the legal department had sent to him and Kushnick, ordering them to cancel Kent’s appearance. A graphic depiction of the fake letter included the name of the NBC lawyer who had signed the real one.

And when guest Frances Fisher (from “Unforgiven”) made a gesture that had to be bleeped, and apologized by saying that she had been told it was OK, Leno responded, “Probably Arthur Kent’s people told you that.”

Later, while cutting to a commercial break, the announcer intoned, “Since we don’t have Arthur Kent, Jay and Frances will be right back.”

“Sorry, Arthur!” Leno yelled as the program faded to the commercial.

Kushnick said later that she is “less mad than I was, and more sorry for Arthur.” She said that as time passes and the furor over Kent’s ugly departure from NBC dies down, she hopes to book him again.